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My First Holiday; 



OR, 



LETTERS HOME 

FROM COLORADO, UTAH, AND CALIFORNIA, 



BY 

CAROLINE H. DALL. 



]/ 



Scarce hath the springtide brought tlie flowers, 
When scarlet leaves fall through the bowers. 

Japanese verses. B. H. C. 

Day follows day, and still no shower of rain ; 
Morn after morn each thirsty blade droops down, 
And every garden tint is changed to brown. 

Yaka Mochi. By Basil Hall Chamberlain. 

" I like a climate where the sun shines one whole day in the year, which I 
have not seen here." — S. W. Cheney, London, 1843. 

r "" f 

j^^'^PV RIGHT '^C^jt^^^^ 

OCT fc£ 1881 . 

BOSTON: 

ROBERTS BROTHERS. 

1881. 



{ 



Copyright, 1881, 
By Caroline H. Dall. 






.S^' 



A 



University Press : 
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. 



TO 



THE DEAR COUSINS, 



WHO TURNED DESOLATION AND DREARINESS INTO DELIGHT, 



5 JBctiicate tl)is Booft. 



A PREFACE TO BE READ. 



In the spring of 1880, several physicians in different 
localities agreed in thinking that I ouglit to take a long 
journey. When it was found that I could not go to 
Europe, California was suggested ; and not only was its 
moderate, equal climate praised and pressed upon my 
consideration, but the facilities of travel were urged. I 
was told that I should not find the journey fatiguing, 
and that for a reasonable fee I should obtain devoted 
service and all needful accessions to comfort, — such as 
hot water and well kept dressing-rooms all along the 
way. I thought I might as well start for the moon ; but 
it proved unexpectedly possible, and so I had seven 
months of unadulterated pleasure. I could not write to 
my friends during my rapid transit from Colorado to 
Utah, and from Utah to California, and up and down its 
length and breadth. My seven months of pleasure, 
however, did not bring the climate that was promised ; 
nor did I find it easy to travel alone beyond the Eocky 
Mountains. On the contrary, for the first time, I found 
myself commanding neither attention nor respect on the 
ground of simple womanhood. It seemed to me that 
there might be invalids to whom many things that I 
went through would prove fatal, and that it was really 
desirable that travellers should know in advance that 



4 A PREFACE TO BE READ. 

what is called the " uniform climate " of California is 
simply a uniformity of change ; that each day gives varia- 
tions greater than any Atlantic town can show, — and 
that this is true all along the coast. In this year of 
1880 it was true as far back as the Calaveras grove ; and 
the morning and evening fogs, which were heavy beyond 
belief from San Eafael to Los Angeles, were distinctly 
felt in Stockton, which last place had the finest summer 
climate I encountered. 

I found a great many trivial things that were exceed- 
ingly interesting and wholly new, — things that it seemed 
to me I ought to have known before I went. I read 
while in the country several books concerning it which 
filled me with amazement, so wholly did the writers 
seem to be indebted to their imaginations for their facts. 
Among these was " Two Years in California," written by 
a lady who was kindly remembered by many of my 
friends. As an example of her statements I will offer 
two. In a long chapter devoted to Chinese affairs she 
gives an account of her visits to the joss-houses, and 
described them as Buddhist temples ! The supposed fact 
is that there is not a single worshipper of Buddha in Cali- 
fornia, nor was there ever a Buddhist shrine there. I read 
this book after I had personally visited the joss-houses, 
and so incredible did it seem to me that any one should 
venture such statements without a shadow of founda- 
tion, that I went down to China-town again, and spent 
the greater part of two of my fast diminishing days in 
trying to ascertain where these shrines were. Again, 
she speaks enthusiastically of the cleanliness of Spanish 
houses and Spanish women. She says if the houses 



A PREFACE TO BE READ. 5 

in the old Spanish towns contain nothing beyond 
a chair, a table, and a bed, they will at least be spot- 
lessly clean ! Now the fact is that these same houses 
are proverbs of uncleanliness ; and in this I take the testi- 
mony of the inhabitants, — I do not offer my own. AVhen 
I lived in Canada, the French and English traders who 
brought satin and cloth for the Indian women to em- 
broider used to have the pattern drawn on linen paper, 
which was basted over the fabric. The women sewed 
through the jKqjer; otherwise their work would have been 
unsalable. I had some Spanish hem-stitching done by 
a Spanish woman in Santa Cruz, which was almost 
worthless for the same reason. 

I do not greatly blame the author I have quoted. I 
doubt whether there is a civilized country on the globe 
wdiere it is so difficult to get any accurate information. 
The name of a flower, the character of a stone, the 
meaning of half-a-dozen hot springs grouped in a corner, 
and all sorts of colors from black to golden, — these 
things, however disagreeable it is not to know, every- 
body cannot be expected to tell ; but the greatest inac- 
curacy of observation and report prevails, and the 
answers to persistent questions are like the old Scrip- 
ture commentaries, of which Dr. Charles Lowell once 
said that the human mind was sure to accept the last 
with which it came in contact ! 

Among modern travellers Isabella Bird holds an 
enviable place. For the same reason that she consents 
to sacrifice artistic arrangement, and submits her reader 
to the egotistic pressure of letters, I have consented to 
do the same. 



6 A PREFACE TO BE READ. 

The following paragraph, which opens her account of 
Japan, would be just as applicable to my experience in 
California : — 

" The traveller's opinion of the climate depends very much 
upon whether he goes thither from the east or from the west. 
If from Singapore, he pronounces it healthful, bracing, and 
delicious. If from California, damp, misty, and enervating. 
Then there are (as in other places) good and bad seasons, 
cold or mild winters, cool or hot summers, dry or wet years, 
and other variations. To-day has been spent in making new 
acquaintances, receiving many oifers of help, asking ques- 
tions, and receiving answers which directly contradict each 
other. "Well, I have months to spend here, and I must begin 
at the alphabet, — see everything, hear everything, read 
everything, and delay forming opinions as long as possible." 

In California, as has been seen, reading was of little 
avail. The country alters from month to month, and 
those who have written about it had a limited experi- 
ence, or were mostly enthusiasts or dreamers. I have 
seen no account of a journey undertaken in summer like 
my own. There is no need to exaggerate. California 
has charms in plenty ; but they do not always lie in plain 
sight, and its future will depend largely on the conscien- 
tious report of those who have eyes. 

I claim accuracy for nothing I relate. These pages 
are only open letters to my friends : they tell how / saw 
things, and what the people said before me, or answered 
to my questions. I wish to give as vivid a picture as 1 
can of the way things look in California to-day, — as Es- 
priella went to England, and did not disdain in his inim- 



A PREFACE TO BE READ. 7 

itable way to describe tlie tongs that lifted the coal. If 
every detail be not true, the whole picture will be truer 
than if I paused to make each item so; and whoso 
cannot understand that mystery will be sure to misun- 
derstand the book. 

What I saw, and not what I shall think about what 
I saw a year or two hence, is what my friends wish to 
hear. It might seem as if a dinner could be had in 'New 
York that would be strangely like that in the Italian 
restaurant in San Francisco ; but I do not think so. On 
the Atlantic coast the pressure of re23ublican civilization 
penetrates every foreign creature to at least a trivial ex- 
tent ; but in California civilization has little to say about 
anything. The population of all the large towns seems 
a sort of crystallized Leadville, where the search for gold 
or what can be turned into gold moves gentle and sim- 
ple, Spaniard and Briton, wdth a common fierce impulse, 
and which neither acts upon the nationality nor is acted 
upon by it. Something else comes first. It may be all 
very well to vote, or to speak English, but meanwhile 
there are the hydraulic engines tearing out the bowels 
of the mountains and w^ashing their rocky sides down 
into the very throat of the Golden Horn. The Spanish 
or Trench quarter is as distinct as the Chinese, yet an 
indescribable indifference to all stereotyped habits, to all 
bodily comfort, united to a lazy enjoyment of the mo- 
ments as they pass, keeps every drop of New England 
blood tingling in the veins of one who looks on. 

These people have all adopted California, however, and 
their fondness for the country is as fierce as that of a lion- 



8 A PREFACE TO BE READ. 

ess for her cubs. Object to the range of the thermome- 
ter ! — you might as well accuse one neighbor of arson 
and another of forgery ! That you did not intend to be 
personal was not to be believed 1 And yet, all over the 
land, the dear friends who made me so welcome and so 
happy would say now and then with a merry laugh, " It 
is good to see some one who is satisfied with her own 
home." In the midst of California fogs I told them of 
the skies blue as Sorrento, which usually bend over the 
hills wliere I write these lines. In the chill of the trade- 
wind I celebrated our golden sunshine. In the heat of 
the Norther, burning brown the blue lobes of the Euca- 
lyptus, I told them of the Potomac breezes that gently 
wave my oaks and walnuts. I came home the last week 
in November : four weeks have passed, and I have hardly 
seen the blue or felt the sunshine; the elements have 
raged all around me ; the snow has heaped up against the 
hill-side as never before for thirty years ; the tooting horn 
warns the traveller of the unsteady track of countless 
sleds that have hardly tried its slopes since the century 
began ; and gay as the Christmas shouts are we are all 
heart-sick for lack of the sun. It is n't wise to write it 
down. I hear you clap your hands and shout with glee 
far off in the hollows of Monterey and Santa Barbara, 
friends ! — while here at home the elements shriek 
rudely, " Will you love this land after all ? Did you say 
it was good to live in ? What do you think now ? " 

Yes, I will love it ! for here we have the sweet succes- 
sion of the seasons, made precious by the reiterated joys 
of the world's generations. Spring, with its coy ap- 



A PREFACE TO BE READ. ' 9 

preaches, and its fountains of color and sweetness ; sum- 
mer, with its wealth of green and its rippling rills ; 
autumn, with its " russet wear " and raiubowed sunsets 
and glowing fruit ; winter, with its firesides, its voca- 
tions, and its Christmas joys. California offers a series 
of monotonies, and although I observed that there as 
here the wild-flowers knew their season, and asked no 
leave to be of sun or rain, yet you ate the same things 
all the year round, and three crops of strawberries took 
the flush and fragrance out of June itself. 

**The common growtli of mother earth 
Suffices me, — her tears, her mirth, 
Her humblest mirth and tears." 

Yet the thought of these past seven months " doth 
breed " in me " perpetual benedictions." As they passed 
they took many of those I had loved into more ideal 
spheres. My going was delayed by the impending death 
of one of the gentlest of God's children, a native of the 
far Northwestern Archipelago ; and as I came home I 
walked thoughtfully between the graves of many whose 
hopes and purposes had been long interwoven with mine. 
To George Eipley, Count Pourtales, Benjamin Peirce, 
Lydia Maria Child, and Lucretia Mott, in all of whom I 
had felt an affectionate interest for nearly a lifetime, 
my heart was forced to say farewell, while my feet still 
wandered. 

"We are such stuff 
As dreams are made of; and our little life 
Is rounded with a sleep. " 

If I had not been in Colorado last summer, I think I 



10 A PKEFACE TO BE READ. 

should have taken no interest in Mrs. Jackson's new 
book. As far back as I can remember, stories of injus- 
tice done to the unhappy Indians have stirred my blood ; 
and when as a child I was shown the bullets and toma- 
hawk marks which dinted the old door at Deerfield, I 
only felt grieved that civilized nations should have been 
able to induce this simple people to carry out their own 
murderous plots. In Colorado I found a shameless 
greed for .Indian territory, which accounted at once 
for the inroads upon the reservations and for all the 
massacres and atrocities recorded. When one reads 
the weekly reports from the mining regions, it seems 
as if they overflowed with gold and silver ; but go into 
these regions, and the first thing you hear are wild 
reports of richer veins and grander openings covered by 
the Indian reservations. In the camps themselves, in 
the parlor of the hotel at Leadville, in the sitting-room 
of a small boarding-house where I finally took refuge 
from the untidiness of that hotel, in the cars between 
Leadville and Cheyenne, between Stockton and Sacra- 
mento, and later between Burlington and Quincy, I 
heard the same revolting story told, — how the United 
States should never have given these Indians such valu- 
able land, and how the speaker had penetrated in dis- 
guise to this or that location, and had brought away 
superb specimens. " It was only a question of time. 
Nobody need tliink the miners would rest till the reser- 
vations were thrown open." Then samples of ore were 
produced and gloated over, which to well-instructed 
eyes showed nothing better than the usual sulphurous 



A PREFACE TO BE READ. 11 

glare of pyrites. But if they had been pure gold, or 
specimens of placer earth as rich as the old deposits at 
Murphy's, what do our people want of them ? What 
do they need more than they already have ? In cross- 
ing from Cheyenne to Sacramento every fifteen miles 
shows a cluster of mineral springs, in which sulphur, 
iron, soda, iodine, or the like are all ready to enter on 
beneficent work. Why should any man covet some hid- 
den geyser ? In the same way the land wherever pros- 
pected reveals all manner of mineral possibilities. Sil- 
ver, gold, iron, and copper can always be had, if " not for 
the asking," then certainly for the working. The In- 
dians care little for the minerals, and quite as little for 
the vanished or vanishing game. But they care for their 
homes, for the land just subjected to cultivation, for 
the prospects of their descendants, and for a certain sort 
of education, which is broken down every time matters 
reach a crisis and they are compelled to remove. Here 
in AVashington we have had anxious groups of them all 
winter; and one could not help wondering why they 
coveted knowledge, when they could not but know 
what successful knaves knowledge had made of white 
men, in and out of departments. Mrs. Jackson's 
spirited volume, the reading of which would make the 
gayest spirit heavy-hearted, sets forth half-a-dozen im- 
portant facts very little known. 

1. The first chapter shows us how the Indians' 
"right of occupancy" is a right recognized from the 
very beginning by all nations, — a right to be bought 
and sold at their own pleasure. 



12 A PREFACE TO BE READ. 

2. It teaches us that the Indian massacres of whites 
in the early days were almost without exception either 
instigated or paid for by the English, French, or Ameri- 
can commanders. When this was not the case, as 
it was in all the raids at the time of the extension of 
the settlements on the Penobscot and the Connecticut, 
they were the result of the section inserted in every 
treaty to this effect, — that if a white intruder crossed the 
Indian lines, " the Indians may punish him as they see 
tit." This may be proved by a reference to the first 
treaties with the Wyandottes and the Delawares. 

3. It shows, to the great surprise of most people, that 
one hundred and thirty-two thousand of our Indians are 
self-supporting on their reservations, receiving not a dol- 
lar from the Government except the interest due them on 
the price of their lands, or, what is the same as interest, 
the annuities paid to tribes supposed to be dying out, 
and to whom in consequence it has not been thought 
necessary to pay the price of their lands. It would seem 
evident to the dullest apprehension that the time must 
soon come when the Government will have to support 
the remnants of tribes w^ho live by hunting and fishing, 
for game of all kinds will soon cease to exist in any suffi- 
cient quantity. We have, ]\Irs. Jackson tells us, about 
fifty-five thousand who never visit an agency, and over 
whom the Government exercises no control. One of our 
surveying parties in the mountains of northwestern 
Mexico lately fell in with an assembly of Indians sol- 
emnly burning their dead. The burning was attended 
with sacred ceremonies, which reminded the surveyors of 



•A PREFACE TO BE READ. 13 

certain rites practised by the Parsees ; and they inquired 
into the meaning of the whole thing, when they saw 
the eye of the corpse offered to the sun on the point of 
a spear. " We are going back to our old gods whom we 
have offended," was the reply. "We have tried the 
white man's God, and he does not care for us. If he 
did, the white man would not dare to treat us ill." 

4. There has seemed to be for the last half century a 
perverse and wilful misunderstanding of the character of 
the Indian tribes and the possibility of their civ-ilization. 
The leading Indians are themselves aware of the change 
of circumstances which makes civilization desirable. If 
the difficulty of getting trustworthy information once ex- 
cused those who have never lived on the frontier for such 
misunderstanding, they can take refuge in such excuse 
no longer. Mrs. Jackson has so industriously and faith- 
fully gathered her facts, that he who reads running can 
inform himself as to the opinions of Burnet, Bonneville, 
Lafitau, and McKenney. How steadily the Indians im- 
proved their lands, while they met with the slightest 
encouragement, we may see from the fact that in 1833 
their cornfields were coveted as greedily as their gold 
fields are in 1881. The letters and speeches of Winne- 
mucca and others are as much to the purpose as those of 
the white men they confronted. 

5. The history of these races shows that under a 
hopeful trust in the whites the Cherokees reached a 
point in civilization quite equal to that of any rival 
population. "They have adopted," says the reluctant 
department only three years ago, ''all the forms of rep- 



14 A PREFACE TO BE READ. 

resentative government. They raise their own wool 
and cotton, and have pianos and sewing machines. 
They print their own laws and their own newspaper." 
Why not, since Sequoia invented his own alphahet ? 

The ninth chapter of this book is one which it is very 
hard to read. I do not see how a white man, who has 
his own vote and feels responsible for the government 
of his native land, can endure the reading. A woman, 
who sees only the moral aspect of the whole thing, and 
has no illegal craving for cornfields or gold fields, 
bows her head and tingles with shame from head to 
foot, as she ponders it. The worst of a great wrong, 
or a series of great wrongs, is that no one can ever 
undo it. It may be repented of, yet it remains a scar 
burned into the face of man or nation. But not on that 
account can the American people afford to pause in the 
work of honesty and reform. The most hopeful thing 
in the history of mankind is the fact, that, whenever 
a great wrong has been done, some great indignation 
sooner or later bears witness to man's outraged moral 
sense. Politically speaking, I have not the smallest 
idea who is to blame for the story which makes me 
blush. But behind the Democrat and the Eepublican 
alike stands human nature, wdiich ought indignantly to 
disclaim the responsibility. 

CAROLINE H. BALL. 
Washington, Aug. 1, 1881. 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

Denver, Col, Aug. 2, 1880. — I took New York and 
Boston in my way to Buffalo and Chicago on my way 
here, — all for good business reasons, with results by no 
means startling, nor especially interesting to you. I 
left Buffalo on the 26th, and here I am ! If the Sierras 
are any dirtier than the " Lake Shore," I pity the prairie 
dogs. It thundered all that night, it seemed to me; 
but when, flunking it might be a dream, I asked the 
porter where we overtook the storm, he answered, — 

" It was all alono- Ohio and Indiana ! " 

o 

Delphic enough, that oracle, had our grandfathers 
been listening ! 

We carried alons^ with us four or five hundred Ger- 
man emigrants of the best stamp. One family had a 
perfect stack of umbrellas of various sizes, — one for 
every child large enough to hold it. I had with 
me several loaves of berry cake, which Annie had put 
into my lunch-basket. 

When we halted at La Porte, I went to the emi- 
grant car, and, mustering a few words of German, 
asked an apple-faced woman if I might give it to the 
" kinder." 



16 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

She looked with some suspicion ou tliis food of the 
blest, but in a few moments every child had its mouth 
as fflU as a broad grin would allow. 

At the Chicago depot I asked one of the men for 
some small bit of information, when he answered 
easily and plainly, " I do not understand what you say," 
havino- fortified himself with this one sentence in 
advance. 

At Chicago it w^as a treat to see how gently busy in 
grave good work American women can be. There I 
found Miss Martin and Miss Perry, graduates of the law 
school at Ann Arbor, who more than made their expen- 
ses the very year they opened their office, and who 
have the loving respect of all who know them. There 
is Mrs. Bradwell, who edits the " Legal Reporter," and 
Dr. Emma Gaston, who, born in Ohio, educated in 
Philadelphia, and coming West from our New Eng- 
land Hospital for Women and Children less than three 
years ago, has now already a noble place in the city 
work. She holds her clinics at the Woman's Hospital, 
is one of the managers of the House of Eefuge, attends 
on certain days at the Dispensary, and w^as appointed 
by the city to look after the interests of a pleasant 
charity called the " Floating Hospital." Far out in the 
lake, beyond Lincoln Park, the city lias built a pier 
more than three hundred feet lonq-. It is covered with 
tents, sheds, and hammocks for countless babies and 
those who care for them. For some years past the babies 
of Chicago have died at a terrific rate ; and now every 
pleasant summer day three steamer-loads are carried 
down to the pier in the early morning, where they enjoy 
the lake breezes until night. A male physician paid by 
the city goes down with the boat, and also a lady whom 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 17 

the city appointed at Dr. Gaston's request ; and these two 
look after their weary little bodies through the day. 

One morning when I was in Dr. Gaston's oiTice, she 
was summoned suddenly to the railroad depot. There 
she found two tiny creatures under five years of age, 
whose parents had both died of yellow fever in Memphis. 
Grandparents in Burlington, Michigan, were too poor or 
too feeble to go to them, but had sent money to bring 
them on. Tags were sewed to their dresses, and they 
were going through, — parcels by express 1 

Unfortunately this sort of parcel has an open mouth, 
and the two little ones were quite ill from the fruit and 
candy given them on the train. 

In Cliicago, too, the w^omen edit a well supported social- 
science paper. I had not seen Chicago since tlie fire. 
Wonderfully has it emerged from its ashes. The superb 
blocks of stone stores, the new post-office and the court 
house, the banks and the insurance offices are covered 
with a florid decoration hardly to be imagined. As to 
the court house, the many rows of outcropping foliation 
can only be accounted for on the supposition that the 
stone blossomed of itself ! 

Under the eaves at the top of many massive pilasters 
are repeated the two figures of man and woman, as if 
both sides of humanity expected to have justice done 
within its walls. One need not criticise the anatomy : 
the figures bear out the general effect. 

Just before I came away, I was introduced to a young 
woman whose story is full of interest. She came of a 
Cambridge family who moved to Iowa tlnrty years ago, 
where she married a lawyer of ability. He was ad- 
dicted to gambling. In two years she had two little 
babies, and when the youngest was six weeks old he 

2 



18 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

deserted her. She had always wished to study law, but 
no one would help her. As soon as her baby could be 
left she began to pick berries, holding this purpose 
steadily in view. 

With the proceeds of the season's berries she went to 
the nearest large town, and took an agency for the sale 
of shoulder-braces. With what she earned in this way 
she went to Chicago and took a position as cashier; and 
so she has paid her way through the Chicago law school, 
and has been for some time employed at a fair salary by 
one of the best leo'al firms. As soon as she has mastered 
all the routine, she will open an office of her own. Since 
she began as a clerk, her oldest child and her father 
have died. She has brought her mother from the farm 
to the city, and established her and the baby out on the 
Boulevard. God bless her lonely and vigorous life ! 

While I was making my tour tln^ough the various 
city and county hospitals, a photographer asked me to 
sit for my portrait. He is making a collection of por- 
traits and autographs which is to be sealed up and given 
to the city of Chicago, and Chicago is expected to give 
it in its turn to the Centennial Commission of 1976 ! 

WJiy talk about the decay of faith ? Where will this 
wonderful volume be in 1976 ; and are we at all sure 
that there will be a centennial commission ? 

I left Chicago on the Eock Island railroad at noon. 
How the Illinois woods have grown during the last 
ten years ! Wonderful spikes of many-colored mints 
and airy pink blossoms flaunted over the prairie. The 
beautiful Illinois Kiver and tall bluff's made many villa- 
ges pretty. " Texas meats " were brought to us on the 
cars. They were " shelled out " of some nut that was a 
cross between the pecan and the shagbark. 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 19 

I was surprised to see how wide the Mississippi is 
at Davenport. Between the high bluffs at Quincy 
it must lind it rather hard to squeeze through. 

My companion on the car was a Vermont woman, 
wlio lias been for many years one of the foremost teach- 
ers in San Francisco. A year or two since, in com- 
pany with another teacher in the Kincon public school 
whose health had failed under the work, she purchased 
a vineyard near Passadina. The two women built 
drying frames and sweating boxes, and last year sent 
six thousand pounds of good raisins to market. I 
shall send you a fuller account of this work some 
day, for 1 am going to the vineyards when the grapes 
are ripe. 

Endless rolling prairies ; countless herds of cattle ; 
superb flaunting flowers ; horned poppies, great chalices 
of snow, with golden centres ; cactus of scarlet and 
yellow bloom ; the cpilohmm marginata, or mountain 
snow ; with alkaline plains that burned our eyes, — 
these made up tlie measure of the next two days. 

Friday the 30th of July was a dreary day ; night 
found us at Ogelalla in Nebraska. 

Thirty-three women and children and two men used 
our dressing-room to-day, the latter entirely without 
right. Unless a party is large enough to take an entire 
car, ladies travelling alone will do well to heed the fol- 
lowing facts : — 

1. ISTo palace or drawing-room cars are to be found on 
the overland route, — only the ordinary Pullman sleep- 
ing car, or silver palace, with the usual abuses. 

2. No dinincj-room car o'oes further than Omaha ; and 
the slow motion of cars, which is said to make dining in 
them so easy and agreeable, does not noio exist on the 



20 MY FIKST HOLIDAY. 

part of the road where they are used. I saw coffee and 
soup thrown into a lady's lap, and could not hold my 
own cup. The "Hotel Car," where meals are cooked 
and beds are made in the same car, is a nuisance beyond 
words. In spite of the promises of the company, porters 
are not at leisure to obtain hot water and milk ; so it is 
better to provide a generous lunch basket with tea and 
coffee to last till the journey's end. 

3. The hand baggage is not easily managed, when the 
train is full, if too heavy for yourself to lift. The fees 
expected are excessive, and it seems to be the policy of 
the Pullman management to force every piece through as 
many hands 'as possible. Do not fee your porters a 
single minute before you have done with them, unless 
with the promise of further pay. If you do, you will be 
left in the lurch. 

4. Women travelling alone are airily told before start- 
ing that they go through ''without change." On the 
contrary, cars must be changed at Chicago, Omaha, and 
Ogden. At each of these places there is several hours' 
delay, and a great deal to do which involves fatigue. 

5. Do not travel alone if it can be helped. If you must, 
associate yourself on the w-ay with another traveller to 
whom your service will be as valuable as that she ren- 
ders you. There is transfer of hand baggage to be paid 
for at each place. One porter cannot attend to twenty 
women. The white conductors are courteous but not 
attentive, and never lift a parcel. The colored porters 
devote themselves to men, whose boots they black, whose 
coats they brush, and from whom they expect heavy 
fees. 

You will be told that you can telegraph from train to 
train and secure your berth without trouble. Suppose 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 21 

you telegraph from Chicago to Omaha ; on arriviug at 
Omaha, one would naturally suppose that she coukl 
step from one Pullman to another, or at least deposit 
her baggage there, while she went in search of the agent. 
On the contrary, she must wearily carry, or watch some 
strange boy carry, her baggage to the Pullman office, 
give in her name, and stand in file till she receives her 
ticket : that done she may seat herself in the car. But 
if at the last moment the company decide that the car 
she is in is not needed, she will have the whole process 
to go through again. 

At the very point where this is most insisted on, — 
at Omaha or Council Bluffs, — you are also required to 
attend personally to the re-checking of your baggage, and 
to pay for any overweight. It would be perfectly easy 
for a clerk to manage all this, but the companies actually 
require you to be in two places at once ; and to accom- 
plish the re-checking joii must stand in sun or rain, 
wholly unprotected, till all the baggage of tliree concen- 
trating lines is " run off." 

The lovely superintendent of the Eincon School at- 
tended to the re-checking, while I went in search of 
berths. My trunk happened to be the last one called, 
and she stood in the hot July sun just an hour and a 
quarter ! Then, when we were seated, the agent decided 
to drop off our car, and I should have gone on without 
any berth at all, so weary was I, if it had not been for 
my friend's persistence. 

The same day I wanted some milk, and gave my 
pitcher to the porter ; but he came back without any. I 
then went into the dining-room myself, and was told 
that if I would pay $1.00 for a dinner I might have a 
glass of milk with it, but that they had none to sell. As 



22 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

the railroad owns land on both sides of the rails, and as 
it also owns every hotel, I mutely showed the printed 
circular on which passengers were promised every com- 
fort required by an invalid. " Madam," retorted the 
clerk, " have you lived till this time, without knowing 
what advertisements are for ? " 

We stayed more than an hour at this little town called 
Sidney. When we resumed our journey I sat opposite 
the wife of a Colorado clergyman, travelling with a sick 
child. At the last moment she had entered the car, car- 
rying the child and a large jug of milk, both tired and 
heated. The porter brought her a table, which she after- 
ward cleared away herself. An hour after, I went to her 
and asked her if she would tell me where she got that milk. 
" I should not have tried to get any," she said, " if my 
little girl's life did not depend on it. I went as you did 
to the dining-room, and was refused. I persisted a little, 
as the child was really too ill to go into the dining-room, 
but it was of no use. I saw a restaurant on the street, and 
went there; but they had sold the last drop hours' ago. 
They directed me to a milliner's shop, three or four 
blocks away, where fresh milk was kept. So I went on 
slowly with the child, and got back in time ! " 

The alkaline plains have begun, and it must be re- 
membered tliat milk is often twenty-five cents a quart, 
and always difficult to get; also that there are too many 
women travelling alone for all to be waited on. But it is 
easy to see what should be done. Everything belongs 
to the two companies, and one word from headquarters 
would remedy the evil. 

On the 31st of July I rose very early, as the only pos- 
sible way to get my bath. I found the porter in the 
ladies' dressing-room, where he certainly did not belong. 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 23 

In a few moments, however, he left it in fair order. It 
was about five in the morning when I went to the rear 
for fresh air. Deep ultramarine drifts of cloud were 
stranded in a golden sea. A man and a boy from West- 
ern Pennsylvania got off in the neighborhood of Central 
City. The man owned five thousand head of cattle or 
thereabout. Afar off was a low frame house ; nearer, 
two houses built of sods : a chimney smoked in each, and 
each liad two frame windows and a door. These houses 
must be very warm, and would look pretty with their 
well rounded tops covered with vines. The drovers who 
live in them had already gone out to the herd. Soon 
I saw on the horizon a pair of antelopes ; then a 
prairie-dog village, with one white-bellied creature on 
guard, who scuttled away like a kangaroo. I do not in 
the least know the names of the flowers I see. 

At Cheyenne the cars stopped directly in front of the 
hotel, where a sjood dinner could be had for one dollar. I 
decided to dine, as I was obliged to wait two hours for the 
train to Denver, and my porter in the Pullman assured 
me that if I did so, the porter of tlie hotel would carry 
my bags to the Denver train without charge. AVhat 
happened ? I paid the porter of the Pullman fifty cents 
-for conveying my movable traps to the hotel. I paid 
one dollar for my dinner, and another fifty cents to the 
porter for putting them on the Denver train, — two dol- 
lars in all, which there was really no need to spend. 
In the hotel no dressing-room was open, and I was in- 
debted to the courtesy of a permanent boarder for a 
chance to wash my hands. The mountain view from 
the second story of the house, however, was cheaply 
paid for at that rate. It was delicious on the other hand 
to follow with kindling eyes the level of the illimitable 
plain. 



24 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

Between Cheyenne and Denver we saw a grand gey- 
ser of dust, and a great many little whirls of the same 
sort off on the horizon. The cattle and the pretty gray 
jackasses fled before it. Then came irrigated fields, and 
finally the magnificent Eocky Mountain range. Lift the 
A¥hite Mountains into the air, multiply their length by 
five, and you will have some idea how the Eockies look 
from Long Mountain to Pike's Peak. I was surprised 
to see no signs of snow, except a scratchy white line 
here and there, which I afterwards found indicated a 
ravine five or six hundred feet wide and perhaps a 
thousand in depth. Greeley, in the valley of Cache La 
Fondre, was the first irrigated town I saw. It is a tem- 
perance town, checked off by sloughs and ditches, and 
its green wheat-fields and orchards made a charming 
contrast to the great stretches of short gray buffalo grass, 
which looked as if they had been sprinkled with salt. 

As we neared Denver, the " Transfer Express " made 
his appearance ; and, as it was growing late and dark, I 
asked him to take charge of my hand baggage. He de- 
clined. " There was a conductor and an omnibus to take 
me to the house; I should have no trouble." Before we 
ran up to the depot, the conductor dropped off the train, 
leaving me in the hands of the brakeman. When we 
stopped, the brakeman peremptorily refused to touch 
my bags. With a good deal of reluctance I left all my 
wraps and bags in the car, went out into the dark space, 
and hired a man to go back with me and take them to 
the onmibus, which was only prevented by our united 
shouts from driving away before we could enter it. 
That my reluctance was wholly justifiable the event 
showed. I was the last passenger dropped. When we 
reached Campa Street there was only one man on the 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 25 

box, who refused to leave his horses ; and unable to lift 
my bags, as a strong man could have done in a mo- 
ment, I called in the assistance of a chance-passer. In 
the transfer, one of my most valuable possessions, — a 
finely made umbrella, intended to serve also as an alpen- 
stock, — finally disappeared. 

All the way to Cheyenne the ascent, though gradual, is 
decided ; and there we are exactly as far above the sea as 
on the summit of Mount Washington. From Cheyenne 
to Denver we slide down a thousand feet ; but the " con- 
tinuance in upper air" had a decided effect, and I 
reached the city feeling fresher than for many months. 

My first view of the Kocky Mountains, all along the 
way, was a great disappointment. Pike's Peak, it is 
true, is 14,400 feet above the sea; but if you see it from 
a plain which is itself lifted 6,500, it is but little higher 
than Mount Washington, and what difference there is 
the eye cannot detect. It is the wide extent of the 
range, and the exhilaration of the air, which first rouses 
the spectator. 

Denver, Ajigust 3, 1880. — Dr. Avery's house is full 
of friends ; so she has a pleasant little room for me 
on the opposite corner. When I got up this morn- 
ing she was showering her beautiful lawn, herself 
as fresh and dewy as any rose that blossoms upon 
it. Together we have driven about the town, and 
I sat a long time in the doctor's carriage on Capital 
Hill, watching the magnificent mountains, well masked 
in volatile clouds, which changed position and color 
every moment. All at once Pike's Peak showed itself, 
a cone of glowing amethyst. This does not mean that 
it looked purple ; it was to all intents and purposes 



26 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

translucent. At Mrs. Scott's I found Mrs. Wilson, 
whose husband is stationed at Leadville, on the U. S. 
Survey. With her was a lady from Ouray, who seemed 
thoroughly to love her mountain home, and taunted my 
fancy with her vigorous outlines of lofty perpendicular 
cliffs, romantic gulches, and cascades dripping from the 
skies. I had come so far, urged simply by my love for 
my friend ; but I am not to go back " till I have seen 
Colorado," — so the doctor decides. This is the land of 
many-colored cacti, of the Euphorbia, of the Epilobium 
augustifolium, — hard words, which I would not use if 
any pretty familiar ones would tell the story, but which 
represent an amount of grace and color and capricious 
floral charm, of which words fail to give any idea. 

The streets of Denver are made beautiful by buildings 
of volcanic limestone, brought here from the Foot Hills, 
some thirty-five miles away. It will command a price 
when its beauty is known. All tints glow through its 
creamy base, from rose color to bluish gray, and the 
sunlight modifies the tender effect every moment. 

Jackson, the photographer, who was such an import- 
ant adjunct to Hayden's Survey, has established a studio 
here ; and I spent an hour or two to-day looking over his 
superb pictures of the canons. 

I hope other people have clearer ideas of Denver than 
I had before I came to it. Although it is nearly as high 
as Mount Washington, and only fifteen miles east of the 
Foot Hills, the city lies in a basin so slightly tilted 
toward the west that it seems absolutely flat. The 
citizens have planted the streets with trees, so thickly 
set that it looks at a little distance like a young forest ; 
and nowhere within the street lines do you get, in the 
summer, even a limited mountain view, unless you try 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 27 

to cross a square. It is the natural centre of all the 
excursions to be made, and has in straggling, unkempt 
business streets some very excellent stores. Above it is 
the great level bluff, called Capitol Hill, whose roads are 
cut through the disintegrated granite of the mountains, 
and are as hard as Nahant Beach. Here a few houses 
have been built. There are many lovely places in Den- 
ver, and one very excellent hotel, — the Windsor, — 
which all my foreign friends unite in praising. As to 
other houses, we must recollect, when we hear them 
praised, what sort of accommodations the old residents 
would be likely to find sufficient. What 9, Western 
man calls " a good hotel " cannot be expected to suit the 
denizens of the Fifth Avenue. I saw fine skins, stuffed 
figures, and furs of unheard of creatures in many of the 
shops. Coyotes, wild-cats, and foxes glared at me. 
Lying in full sight were poor attempts at painting the 
superb ".lilies of the field," beautiful iridescent frag- 
ments of peacock pyrites, long crystals of the newly 
discovered " Celestine " (a sort of quartz of heavenly 
blue), agates from the hills, and " fulgurites." These last 
are long tubes of vitrified sand, glazed within, which 
are said to be formed by the lightning when it j)ene- 
trates a sand-bank. These are valued at $25 each. 
" Conversations about Common Things" may now begin : 
" Who was the first glass-maker ? " — " Fulgur." Beside 
these lay fossil fish from Green Elver. There are three 
varieties, none more than five inches long. They are 
involved in laminated limestone, and split so as to show 
skeletons, not scales. 

This afternoon came news from Mrs. W. Her hus- 
band has telegraplied her, and she will go to Leadville 
to-morrow. I promise to stay with her two or three 



28 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

days, if, at the end of that time, she will go on with me 
to Colorado Springs. 

Augusts, 1880. — With well-supplied luncheon bas- 
kets, we took the cars for the South Park Eoad. We did 
not know it, but it happened to be the very first day 
the South Park train had run into Leadville ; and, in- 
deed, this road itself was started less than two years 
ago. When I left the main line of travel at Cheyenne, 
I went south a hundred miles to Denver. From Denver 
to Leadville I go southwest on a narrow gauge road; 
one hundred and fifty more ; and as we took fourteen 
hours to make the distance, it enabled me to see the 
country fairly well. 

When the engineers first entered the Platte Canon, 
which traverses the South Park, not only had no vehicle 
ever passed through it, but no Alpine climber had 
attempted it ; no trapper's imagination had suggested 
the possibility of a trail There were few places where 
the banks of the river were not precipitous cliffs, 
stretching heavenward for a thousand feet. For twenty 
miles the road goes over a rolling prairie, with little 
farms thrifty and pleasant in the summer sun, but grew- 
some enough, 1 11 warrant, when the snow begins to fall. 
The surveyors gave up the theodolite for triangulation 
and stadia-hairs ; while nitro-glycerine did duty for 
shovel and pick. In a dozen places, at least, they made 
a new channel for the river, that the old channel might 
serve as a bed for the railway. Cuts forty feet deep 
were made through solid granite. Walls which cannot 
be distinguished from the everlasting hills were reared 
to defend the road. Men were lowered from five hun- ^ 
dred to a thousand feet, by ropes, to drill the holes to 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 29 

which they attached the platforms upon which tliey 
were to work. The road crosses the river several times. 
It is a succession of curves. More than once I looked 
directly out of the window near which I sat into the win- 
dows of the cars behind. Two miles of this road it cost 
$32,000 to build; and the cheapest mile cost $4,000. 

This miraculous engineering is to the credit of a Mr. 
Eicholtz ; and very proud he is of his work. The road 
runs under narrow, projecting ledges, by the side of 
the turbulent Platte Eiver. Its surroundings have a 
cool, green look. Spires and pinnacles of red granite 
rise here and there. At one point the grade is 137 feet 
to a mile ; at Kenosha, seventy-six miles from Denver, 
the road ascends the mountain spirally at a grade of 185 
feet. At first we entered a wide grassy vale, with a 
perfectly clear view of the whole " Continental Divide." 
Not one traveller in a thousand sees this. The view is 
often limited to the nearest Foot Hills. A thrill of de- 
light passed through me at the first glimpse of this 
magnificent mesa. At the mouth of the canon we came 
upon mining sheds, and men were at work fifty feet 
above us, digging a ditch to irrigate the cliffs. 

The river is a series of rapids. Forty miles out we 
came upon a little camp. Curious dome-like rocks and 
spires, thick-set as those of the Cathedral at Milan, rise 
a thousand to fifteen hundred feet above us, — it does 
not matter whicli ; for I have already learned that in Na- 
ture as in mathematics there is a point at whicli mensu- 
ration passes human perception, and can be appreciated 
only by the Infinite. Some of the Foot Hills are crowned 
with groves, and in the grass a tiny scarlet flower be- 
trays, by its fine color, the character of the soil. Pent- 
stemons, pink, purple, scarlet, crimson, make lines of 



30 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

living light athwart the grass. Every now and then 
there is a low opening into the hillside, like a door or a 
fire-place. The jambs are stoned up, and overhead a 
slab of heavy granite makes a sort of mantel, and holds 
up the crumbling shaft. The liills and the moraine at 
the foot of them are covered wdth a net-work of dead 
branches, which has a curious effect. Then the valley 
opens to a park-like glade, and snowy tents of invalids 
offer lovely suggestions of summer life. It is all so green, 
and so sweet with the breath of pines. The angles of 
the hills open wide. An elegant city carriage with two 
prancing horses held by the lightest traces dances across 
our path. The open stretches into enamelled meads. I 
half expect to meet Persephone. Primroses, purple 
vetch, zinnia, and nodding sunflowers half liide and half 
parade their charms ; painted-cup quivers like a flame. 
At Kenosha the mountain is 10,200 feet above the sea. 
We wind up 185 feet to the mile. The sight is still a 
new one. A valley gracious as Paradise and noiseless as 
tlie night opens from a bend in the river five hundred 
feet below. Gay teams with four horses catch a glimpse 
of us, and wave through the silence white banners of 
cheer. Delicious white lilies with speckled hearts, 
scarlet honeysuckles and cranberry blossoms, with bells 
twice as long as those which grow in New England, 
tantalize us as we fly past. The South Park opens as 
we descend. The whole chain of mountains stretches 
across the eastern side. It seems only flecked with 
snow, but the white specks cover acres of ground, and 
are from five to eight hundred feet deep. Near us the 
yarrow blooms bitter-sweet, as on my eastern hills. 
Pike's Peak is cut into the sky, as if by intaglio. Every- 
where beyond the Mississippi we encounter "parks." 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 31 

Sometimes they are vast extents of geysers, of eccentric 
rocky spires, or frowning cliffs, as in the valley of the 
Yellowstone. Sometimes they are green glades, span- 
gled with flowers, and showing perennial drought in 
dwindling trees. South Park is a cup-like plain, set 
within mighty walls, and some thirty miles by sixty in 
extent. Its rim is dappled by hills that in the winter 
lift their heads out of the snow, from three to five thou- 
sand feet above the sea. The South Platte crosses the 
Park. This and the trout-brooks are full of fish, the cov- 
erts teem with small game, and from the cliffs the sheep, 
elk, and deer eye the sportsman placidly. 

We stop in the wilderness. Far away is a miners 
shanty. As a second-class passenger drops off, with a 
dozen hand parcels which his late companions toss 
toward him, a tidy wife, leading a little child by each 
hand, comes to meet him, while tvv'o or three larger 
boys race on before, each striving to be the first to grasp 
a bundle. It is a pretty sight. Life's brightest pinna- 
cle is touched here, far below the summit of Cathedral 
Rock. Mounds of moraine begin to rise abruptly. I 
see the Buffalo Peak, and recognize the lumbering like- 
ness. Here we come to what has been until lately the 
end of the freighting road. The long trains of mules 
and wagons, coupled two together, follow a single driver 
over the natural road of the ravines, and are so pictur- 
esque that it is pleasant to encounter them. The profits 
of the teamsters are said to be very large. The men 
live with their mules, and are almost as brutal. I have 
long since made up my mind that there is no sin neces- 
sarily connected with the habit of swearing. Coarse- 
ness there must be, but no intentional wrong against 
Deity itself if a man does not know what Deity is. To 



32 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

some unknown power these men address imprecations 
which are not only terrific, but which are perfectly unin- 
telligible to the listener. Like the Negroes of Bambarra, 
they neither talk nor want anybody to talk to them, and 
answer without lifting their eyes when busy among the 
teams. All along the way they travel the air is scented 
with dead horses and littered with broken waixons. 

Here are platforms still heaped with bullion. The 
wagons which brought food will take this away. If it 
stood here for a year it would be safe, for it is too heavy 
for a tliief to lift. 

Out of the side of the mountain, without preface or 
apology, darts a volume of water. It is as thick as a 
man's body, and widens into a trout-creek, to run the 
next nine miles. You cannot put a pin between the 
fish. One man caught thirty-four before breakfast to-day 
with no more delay than transferring them from the 
stream to his bucket involved. Then come groves of 
pinole, looking like a ragged old apple-orchard, capital 
for firewood, and bearing under the scales of its cones a 
kernel the size of an acorn, sweet and tender, such as 
they grind into flour for bread in Sweden. The volcanic 
limestone which yjleased me so much with its soft tints 
in Denver yields $35 worth of silver to the ton, and was 
used by the Mexicans three hundred years ago. It looks 
as clean as if cut to-day. No sort of moss or lichen will 
cling to it ; and this cannot be due to the dryness of tlie 
climate, but to the indestructible character of the stone. 
Parasites grow on other stones, and on all the old tree 
trunks. Ten miles from Buena Vista a cliff of white 
chalk makes a most unexpected appearance, and rises 
two thousand feet. Wherever the mountains are cut 
you see the granite disintegrating. They are everywhere 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 33 

SO shaky and full of fissures that it seems as if any great 
convulsion might prostrate the whole range ; and yet in 
the sunset light where Harvard, Princeton, and Yale 
wall out the valley of the Arkansas, how solid and in- 
domitable they look ! A little way back is Weston, a 
deserted mining camp, where they liave been opening 
graves to remove tlie dead to a cemetery. There thirty- 
seven bodies lay as they died, " in their boots ; " and two 
who had killed each other in a fierce quarrel were found 
in the same box ! 

As I dwelt almost without hope on this sad story, 
gazing absently at the dark ledge full of the crevices 
in which such graves are made, a burst of sunlight kin- 
dled a distant peak lying far back of all the rest, and 
brought it into sudden life and beauty. So may a 
diviner light kindle some day the darkest recesses of the 
darkest human hearts, and rebuke our coward thoughts ! 

My companions to-day were three gentlemen from 
Cincinnati. Two of them were superintendents of the 
Adams Express, and the other had charge of the local 
telegraph line. They got me a campstool, set me out 
on the rear platform, told me stories, and gathered me 
flowers all day. The car was clean, the porter attentive, 
and the day passed like a festival. 

Our arrival after dark at Leadville was unfortunate. 
Mucli as I wished to see the place, — and I did wisli to 
see it, not for its own sake, but as a type of other places, 
passed and passing, — I would not have gone to it alone. 
When I joined Mrs. W. it did not occur to eitlier of us 
that we might not find quarters together. As her hus- 
band was a resident, our plan seemed very simple. 

But this was the first attempt the cars had made to 
run into the town. It was the darkest of dark nights, 

3 



34 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

not a lantern on the platform, no depot as yet in exist- 
ence. We were hurried into an old-fashioned stage- 
coach, without step or ladder, treading in the blackness 
over broken joists, carpenters' debris, and protruding 
sleepers. It is best to forget how I found my way in : 
I believe it was over the shoulders of men. Then Mr. 
W. made himself known by his voice ; but our telegram 
had not reached him, and I was obliged to go alone to a 
hotel, while he took his wife to a small room he had 
hired near the Survey. It is not worth while to say 
anything about the hotel. Fortunately I wanted noth- 
ing to eat. 

Leadville, Aug. 6.1880. — I wrote some letters and 
took them to the post before breakfast. What a villa- 
nous crowd I pushed through ! JSTot a woman to be seen. 
The street is fuller than Broadway seen as you look down 
to the Battery from Grace Church, for Leadville is the 
base of supply for all the Gulches. I made a vain at- 
tempt to drink a vile poison called coffee, and to eat some 
mountain trout embedded each in a pasty sarcophagus. 
Then went to tlie front window and leaned over the 
rail of the balcony to watch the crowd in the main 
street until' the W's. came for me. I did not feel par- 
ticularly ill, and strange to say, although I had found 
my pillow drenched with blood, it made hardly any im- 
pression upon me; and so great was the excitement 
created by my novel circumstances, that I wholly forgot 
the probability of illness in an altitude of eleven thou- 
sand feet. 

A surging mass of villanous faces swayed up and 
down before me. If there were faces that were only 
coarse or rude, they did not mitigate the impression. 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 35 

Two policemen were murdered last week, and yet the 
one in front of me was not afraid of the two men as- 
tride their asses wliom he was seeking to separate and 
arrest. Gentle-looking men on superb horses dashed by 
now and then. Half-a-dozen women walked quietly 
by, as if to a day's work. There was not one here last 
year. There are a great many loiterers, although more 
than a thousand have gone away since the failure of the 
little Pittsburgh and the Chrysolite. Broad hats; 
broader backs astride well stuffed saddle-bags ; Mexican 
ponchos, shooting boots ; bells jangling on the necks of 
mules, used as a warning when they enter a narrow 
pass ; a string of pack-horses or pretty gray jacks, and 
at last a man on horseback with three or four led mules, 
entirely hidden by their packs, consisting of feather 
beds, furniture, and cooking-stoves ! 

By and by a little child of four years old or so, in a 
knitted cloak of shaded crimson wool, in a delicate lace 
cap lined with a crimson silk which told of some far-off 
home, came slowly down the street. Her little hand 
rested on the neck of a lovely young burro of soft gray 
color, as graceful as an antelope. She leaned against 
the creature and walked steadily through the crowd. 
Now and then the animal paused in a way which sug- 
gested its native obstinacy. She lifted her hand, gave 
it a little hit behind with a fairy fist, and moved on 
through the always parting crowd. I fancy there was 
a servant close behind, but the crowd was so dense no 
one could distinguish him. She might have been 
the — 

** Heavenlj' Una, with her milk white lamb." 

One is not apt to think of the old warriors, scarred 
in the cause of freedom, as likely to go crazy over gold 



36 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

nuCT<Tets, or placer dinjo'ino-s. Yet I had heard that Asa 
Hutchinson was here, and that while his wife rode on 
horseback from one mine to another, Asa had opened 
a boarding house, where a few travellers could get 
rooms, and a great many travellers and residents were 
supplied with wholesome meals. I had made up my 
mind that the horrible food and terrible untidiness of 
the hotel could not be endured for even another day ; 
so as soon as my friends came I went in search of Asa. 
I saw from afar the broad-brimmed hat and large snowy 
collar folded down, and in a few moments a cheery 
voice shouted, " Mother ! here is an old comrade in want 
of a room." The house is in close proximity to a livery- 
stable and a marble-yard, and has nothing attractive 
about it. Here however I speedily engaged a room, which 
was, as Dickens said, '' so many feet short by so many feet 
narrow," at a dollar and a half a day, in exchange for 
abominations at the hotel for four dollars ; and here, as 
long as I stayed, I found the very best of food, whatever 
else I missed. There are many sources of illness in 
Leadville which a stran^-er would not suspect, — among: 
them the absolute want of drainage and the putrid con- 
dition of the water, which is kept in hogsheads filled at 
discretion. 

A servant went back with me to the hotel to bring 
away my hand-bags. Entering without warning I found 
the chambermaid searching my drawers, and did not 
realize till a long time after that she had appropriated 
some toilet conveniences. We then went to inquire 
about Mosquito Pass, which I was very anxious to cross, 
as it gives the same view of the Rocky Mountains that 
Thorn Mountain beyond Jackson does of the White 
Hills. But I could make no arrangement. The stage- 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 37 

coach goes daily over it toward Fairplay, and it almost 
always encounters rain, snow, or hail. There is only 
one chance in a thousand of tlie view I wanted. This 
coach would take me to meet the return mail, but only 
one of these vehicles would be covered, and I dared not 
risk a storm at twelve thousand feet above the sea in 
an o^^en team. AVe then took a carriage with a driver 
to " see the town." 

Leadville lies in a narrow valley, without any view of 
the hills, which rise steeply all about it. It was first 
known to story as California Gulch. To the south rise 
Carbonate and Freyer hills ; and in these are all the 
great mines. It is n^^on one of these hills that the 
traveller should seek a shelter if he would avoid ill- 
ness. 

With eight thousand residents, and a floating popula- 
tion of thirty thousand, Leadville, at queer shifts to as- 
sume the appearance of a town, is in reality only a con- 
geries of mining camps running out upon the side-hills, 
with one long street as a centre. If the shanties had 
been log-cabins covered with creepers, the effect might 
have been pretty at a distance, in spite of filth, of excre- 
tions animate and inanimate, of tin cans and hoop skirts ; 
but the houses are built of bright yellow planks, which 
keep marvellously fresh in the clear mountain air, and 
their chimneys terminate in a small cask or a rusty 
stove-pipe. 

The three or four trading-streets are a mile in length, 
along which parapets of painted boards help the wretched 
one-floored shops to put on airs of two-storeyed grandeur. 
At right angles with these is Chestnut Street, where 
livery-stables, gambling hells, brothels, and well-lighted 
dance-houses, without screen or curtain, cluster and 



38 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

throw their lurid gleams across the street at night. 
From this nucleus spurs of similar character and pro- 
portion shoot out sharply upon the hills, or widen into 
clusters, as a smelting house, a new strike, or a lifting 
crane may suggest. There is no drainage, a plenty of 
water of late, pure in itself, but kept in most places in 
such a way as to turn it fetid. Countless children 
swarm through the streets, with no better playthings 
than a tin can or a stray jack. Yet in the midst 
of all this you find here and there a tidy woman, or 
a lovely babe, telling of hopes long delayed or better 
things forsaken. 

Our driver was a boy under twenty, who came from 
Iowa, and made three dollars a day in the smelt-house, 
till he nearly died of the poisonous fumes. Now he 
drives for the " Livery " until he is well enough to go 
back. He seemed frank and pure. As we drove up 
Freyer Hill to get a general view of the town, we came 
across another lad of the same age, — George Hagars, of 
Hagarstown, Maryland. He was in miner's rig, but 
leaned across our vehicle with the easy slouch tliat only 
a Southron knows, told us where to go, and gave us an 
introduction to the foreman of the " Eobert E. Lee," a 
certain George M., hailing last from Washington. 

Our carriage drove in and out among dry stumps and 
rubbish as we went ; but with brave persistence the sun- 
flower, the gillia, and the painted cup nodded all along our 
way. The " Robert E. Lee " is called the richest silver 
mine in the world. The large bucket is moved by a pow- 
erful steam-engine, and pours a river of water down the 
sweep. Then a smaller pail brings up the clay-colored 
ore, which is dried and sent to the smelter. Fifty 
thousand dollars lay in one muddy pile. In Peru, the 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 39 

bars of galena are counted and covered. Plere they lie 
for days along the railway ; there is nothing to prevent 
theft but the difficulty of transportation. 

M. went to the Paris Exposition as an attache of the 
( Governor of Arizona. The position was a sinecure, and 
he availed himself of it to travel two years in Europe 
without any definite aim. He was a cultivated and in- 
telligent but very wild-looking fellow, and I have little 
doubt that drinking had forced him to a frontier liie. 
We went with our driver to the smelting houses, and 
brought away some rich bits of ore ; but I had been 
giddy for some time, and could not get out of the car- 
riage. Before our early dinner was over I was as ill as 
my worst enemy could desire. There was no one to do 
anything for me, and various people came in and out of 
my room, saw me suffer, and went away without a 
word. At last I bribed a Swedish servant-girl, who was 
very ill herself, to sit with me until the W.'s came to 
devise an excursion for to-morrow. Mrs. W. undressed 
me, and her husband went for brandy. (I advise the 
next traveller who needs it to go to a dram-shop and 
not to a druggist's.) If I lay perfectly still I could keep 
my consciousness, but any attempt to go up the low 
stairs which led from my room deprived me of it. My 
condition decided the direction of our excursion. There 
was no doubt I was suffering from the altitude; at 
the Twin Lakes I should be five hundred feet lower, 
and it was thought a day spent there would enable me 
to start for Colorado Springs, where I should speedily 
recover. 

August 6, 1880. — How I dressed this morning is as 
much a mystery as how I got into the stage-coach on 



40 , MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

Wednesday night. My poor Swede had something to 
do with it. When Mr. W. drove up to the door to see 
if I was able to start, I agreed to try. It is said to be 
eighteen miles to the Lakes. We went a long way over 
the arid j)lain, strewn with the filth first of the town 
and then of the camps, with dead horses innumerable, 
and charcoal kilns. When I first saw how bare the 
hills were, I forgot that a furnace was the necessary 
consequence of a '^strike," and wide-spread dreariness 
the next step to the furnace. Somewhere hidden away 
there must be trees, for tlie fires still burn. At one of 
the fords we met a charcoal wagon. The driver was 
pouring water over his coal. It had been thrown into 
the wagon before it was cool, and he had already lost 
eight or ten bushels. Strings of mules, pack-horses, 
strollers with poncho and sombrero could not beguile my 
senses altogether. The awful odors of decaying flesh 
upon that dreary road I shall never forget. 

At last we came in sight of the Lakes. They lie serene 
under the hills, the soft clouds and golden sunlight 
flitting over their bosoms, as if tliere were no such 
place as Leadville in the world. Each covers about a 
square mile, and they are connected by a rapid feeder. 
A few board shanties put up by squatters supply crea- 
ture comforts to the little camp. Near the oldest of 
tliese, Mary Hallock Foote and her husband had taken 
a log cabin, but she was not well enough to see me. 
The best " claim " here lies in a bullet, and that must 
yield to the miner's strike. These " Twins " are the rem- 
nant of a great glacial sea, and the Foot Hills are mo- 
raines superbly marked and shaded a little by yellow 
pines, piiioles, and cotton-wood. We crossed over to the 
new house, built by a Stabler family from Pennsylvania, 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 41 

migrating Avitli broad strides from Pittsburg to Colorado 
through twenty-five years of married life. Itain fell, 
and they made us welcome. We had already taken out 
our horses and lunched by the lake. The water was 
delicious; we drank it under the pines, the hills look- 
ing down, and through my giddy brain shimmered the 
thought of Ullswater. I had asked for a lunch, as I 
should be away over dinner ; and it would be a pity to 
omit stating that when my parcel w^as opened it con- 
tained precisely one doughnut and one sandwich ! It 
w^as fortunate my friends were better supplied. 

If I had only been properly informed, I need not have 
gone back to Leadville to start at the gliostly hour of 
3.30 to-morrow morning. Had I brought my valise I 
could have driven to Granite from the Lakes to-ni^ht, and 
taken the cars there after an 8 o'clock breakfast. As 
we went over to the Lakes the dust had settled on us an 
inch deep. The rain laid it ; and, as we returned, the 
wind carried away the odor of the dead horses. We 
encountered drunken drivers, quarrelling ranchmen, and, 
on the verge of the town, policemen, risking life and 
limb as they wrested firearms from the hands of drunken 
brawders. I shall never forget this drive. The land- 
scape, a little di-eary, was all on a large, grand scale ; 
lines were interminable, distances immeasurable, and at 
the Lakes themselves the mountains do not rise as 
steeply as the photographs represent, but have a pro- 
tecting air, as in Westmoreland or at Lake George. 
They were covered with gay orange and red lichens, 
and the gnarled pinoles gave them a domestic look. 
There were no birds, — indeed I have been struck by 
the absence of animal life ever since I left Illinois. The 
gopher and the prairie dog, and a sort of squirrel, skip- 



42 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

ping from mound to mound, form the only exception ; 
and these are not very plenty. We re-entered Leadville 
over the crest of the hills, meeting two funerals on 
the way, and passing many smelting-houses, with their 
stacks of charcoal and heaps of slag. The many fune- 
rals have a depressing effect, as the miners themselves 
confess. It seems to me that I have not looked up once 
without seeing one. 

Leadville is doomed. Such a town can exist but a 
very short time at the best. Its life began as a placer 
digging, until some wise fellow recognized in the rejected 
waste of the old washiugj somethinof which looked like 
iron ore. Then within two years five thousand shafts 
were sunk, of which perliaps fifty have paid. It is said 
that six millions of dollars in small grains of gold were 
taken in a few years from the old washings of California 
Gulch. An honest, hard-working set of men carried this 
six millions east : and the ojamblers in minimi" stocks 
and "prospectors" who have succeeded them are a 
wholly different set. Nothing that life has to offer 
would be cheaply purchased to me by six years resi- 
dence in Leadville. I never saw a kitchen in which I 
would not rather serve my time. 

There were two superintendents of education here 
lately, and one was, as I suppose, insane. They quar- 
relled, carried their revolvers into the school-room, fought 
before the children, and the sane man was finally driven 
out before an axe in the madman's hand. Insanity is 
not much worse than ignorance, and when the city 
superintendent was put into confinement the county 
superintendent did not get on. Colorado University 
keeps its eye on these lawless outposts. It appointed a 
new professor, and sent him here to see what he could 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 43 

do. God speed him ! This is the Unitarian's proper 
work. Why is he not about it ? I am afraid the spirit 
of self-sacrilice has died out of our wealthy church. 
Doing as one pleases, by running a popular city charity, 
is not as some people think a work of disinterested 
benevolence. 

This week the manager of a circus, having sent off 
his vans, was preparing to follow in his cart. He had 
88000 in silver, and was carefully stowing it away when 
two ill-looking fellows harnessed his horses, sprang up 
in front, and drove him and his treasure away. Murder 
as well as theft would have followed ; but the axle-tree 
fortunately broke at the first hill, and the men made 
their escape before the mounted police could get up 
with them. Mrs. Astor's diamonds would stand a poor 
chance here. 

Leadville newspapers are vile beyond conception. 
Vice appears to be accepted by them all as a creditable 
fact ; and by vice I mean licentiousness, gambling, and 
drinking. If a community could live that permitted 
murder and rapine, the newspapers would accept those 
also ; but there are limits for gods and men. Any one 
coming here should bring twice the money which would 
seem necessary. He will be cheated and overcharged at 
every turn. 

My illness made me curious about the height of this 
place. This valley lies ten thousand five hundred feet 
above the sea; the highest of the Eocky Mountains 
rises over fourteen thousand feet ; the Alps fifteen 
thousand ; and the Himalas twenty-three. I do not- 
supj)ose I should live if I ascended Pike's Peak. As I 
dared not undress to-night, I lay on the sofa in the par- 
lor and listened to the mining talk of some New York 



44 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

capitalists, whom a gang of scurvy-looking fellows had 
been following and coaxing all day, as the manner of 
mining towns is. I had not been in town an hour be- 
fore some persons came to me to talk about mines, for 
it is naturally enough supposed that any decent j^eople 
who come here must intend to invest. They went away 
disgusted when they found that I was curious only 
about education and morals. What I heard to-nidit 
was as instructive as what I saw on Chestnut Street. I 
was greatly shocked to see the effect of the town life on 
women of good standing and average character. I heard 
a young man tell his mother, that, owing to the forget- 
fulness of a customer, he liad an opportunity to over- 
charge to the extent of sixty dollars on a piece of work. 
And this woman, whom I had known for years and al- 
ways supposed respectable, coolly advised him to do it. 
" The customer must look out for himself," she said. " If 
you do it for him, and those who are like him, you will 
never earn your living." And so little moral conscious- 
ness did she show in the whole matter, that if she should 
read this page she will never imagine that it refers to 
herself. 

Leadvillc, throitgli Pueblo to Colorado Springs, Au- 
gust 7, 1880. — My landlady bade me good-by wlien she 
went to bed last nioht, and I was e^iven to understand 
that I must open the door for myself this morning. I 
asked her to leave some milk and crackers on the dining- 
room table, and did not undress. At three o'clock I 
called my faithful Swede, and asked her to light the 
lamps in the long passages, that I might find my way 
through the hall. Of her own kind heart she began to 
dress, when there came a thundering knock at the door. 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 45 

The depot was not a mile away, and why I should be 
called at half-past three to go to cars that did not start 
till ten minutes after five, I was unable to guess. It 
was now only three, and I had not taken my millv. It 
was decided that Mrs. W. should remain with her hus- 
band for a month, and I had no companion or advice ; 
still, I absolutely refused to start then, and the man 
drove off after other passengers, and when lie came back 
I was ready. I went out under the stars, with a faint 
rim of light showing the horizon, and was shaken up 
rudely over the frozen ruts till I reached the spot where 
a depot should be. I found there a crowd of peo^Dle 
standing on boards so thickly covered with frost that it 
seemed impossible it should not be snow. At first I 
walked stupidly back and forth to keep myself from 
freezing. At last I saw a young wife, with a baby not 
two months old, crouching from pure weariness on the 
cold plank. I went to the cars, but they were fast 
locked. I next piled up my bags and shawls on the 
platform of the car, and insisted on her sitting upon 
them. Then I waked up the guardian of the South 
Park train, who was snoring by his puffing engine, and 
begged him to put her into his own train ; but he had no 
key. After an hour and a quarter — at fifteen minutes 
past five — our cars were opened, and we all crowded 
into the " Horton Coach," where there was a fire. The 
hour for starting had come, and neither conductor nor 
brakeman appeared. The engineer whistled furiously; 
the passengers swore; some went home; others only de- 
claimed. For me, as the hours wore on, I was appalled 
by my physical suffering, and knew not what to do. 
The father of the baby — a young civil engineer — at 
last took pity on me and brought me a glass of good 



46 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

Philadelphia lager, which I think saved my life. There 
was a space during which I was hardly conscious. 

Exactly at five minutes past seven, just two hours 
late, the conductor appeared, looking somewhat shame- 
faced ; and the train started. No explanation of this 
great outrage was ever offered, except that a rattling, 
fellow on the train, evidently one of the conductor's 
sort, asserted that he had found both the men in a 
gamblino- hell winnino- at kino. " Couldn't leave wdien 
lie was winning, you know," continued the fellow, and 
asserted that the conductor was so great a pet of the 
company that he might do as he pleased. This story is 
only worth telling as significant of the time and place, 
and I will finish it here. In the afternoon the general 
manager of the road came into the car. Before that 
time, in spite of terrified remonstrances from white- 
haired men, we had been whirled through the Eoyal 
Gorge of the Arkansas at the rate of thirty-six miles 
an hour, on a narrow gauge road ; and when we reached 
Pueblo on time, we had made up the whole of the lost 
two hours. This was now told to the manao-er ; and 
I was asked by Mr. L., of the New York " Tribune," if I 
would not write a plain statement of it to Jay Gould; 
but I declined. 

Never was there a more disgusting car than that in 
which we made this journey ; and our dressing-room was 
in the possession of a few men attached to tobacco pipes 
for the whole day. 

I was delighted with the opening of the road. Ex- 
cept that it was on a grander scale, it made me think of 
the interval before Moat Mountain, at North Conway. 
Sunrise is the time to see the "Continental Divide." 
Western light leaves its huge masses in shadow. The 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 47 

morning rays picked out the rocky summits ; clematis 
wound and blossomed round their base. We passed 
near the California Gulch, out of which so much money 
was washed in the shape of pretty little golden beans. 
Along the way many small shafts plunged into the mo- 
raine. Delicate lights and shadows of purple, blue, and 
rosy brown, touched with the tender green of the " quak- 
ing aspen,", sped over the rocks; great boulders rose out 
of the midst of the broad river. The valley is more open 
and sunny and yet more jagged than that from which 
the canon of the La Platte opens. It sweeps straight 
forward for a hundred miles, and where it falls into 
the plain it moves through a canon whose walls are a 
marvel for sheer depth. There is something inspiring 
in the slopes which rise westward six thousand feet 
toward the mountains. In a lovely open, walled in 
by four mighty crags, the wide river turns. The sum- 
mits seem ready to crumble. The road is paved with 
the red sand fi-om their disintegrated surface. A peak 
rises athwart tlie pass. A moment more and we are on 
the moraine, with the Divide reared like a wall against 
the western sky. Green, purple, gray are its shadows. 
T did not enjoy this canon as I did that of the La Platte, 
although it is far grander, — partly because the speed at 
which our delinquent ran the cars kept us startled and 
anxious, and prevented deliberate gazing ; and partly on 
account of the character of the soil, which makes it im- 
possible to go to the rear. The dust of the detestable 
Lake Shore was never worse. The walls of the canon 
were already finer than any I had seen, but so perpen- 
dicular as to be very difficult to observe. A sidelong 
glance won nothing. The lights were more and more 
mellow^ on the grand old hills. At South Arkansas an 



48 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

omnibus was waitiDg to take people to Gunnison and 
Ouray. It would not have seemed more out of place in 
Heaven ! More trees, more moraine, and then came 
some hot springs with rude arrangements for bathing. On 
some of the prairie-dog hills sat the companion owl, and 
he bowed twice, in a knowing kind of way, to whoever 
approached, as much as to say, " It 's between you and 
me." Then the cliffs contracted. Only at intervals did 
we get the superb mountain view. The rock's changed 
from granite to slate, or something slaty, and then once 
more to limestone. 

The La Platte was j)artly a leafy ravine : not a leaf 
breaks the front of the Eoyal Gorge. It was a positive 
pain to rush through it at such a rate ; and if the speed 
had not destroyed all pleasure, the terror of the pass'en- 
gers would have done so. As we rocked from side to side 
of the open observation car, tlie mighty walls which rose 
bare for two thousand feet seemed to be heated red-hot, 
and to burn the air. There is nothing lovely about the 
midday glare, but much that is frightful. We have 
rushed through eight miles of this, but have not turned 
sharp corners as on the La Platte, nor once seen our en- 
gine at right angles with our train : there was not the 
same kind of care required in guiding the train as in 
the South Park. At Black Hawk on the Georc^etown 
Road, where I am not going, the cars do not attempt to 
turn. They ascend the side of the mountain by a series 
of zigzags,, backing a mile after the first move, then 
moving forward, and then backing again, and gaining a 
few miles in height at each move. Miss Seward, who 
has been round the world and through the ghauts of 
Bombay, thinks the zigzag at Black Hawk, tlie loop at 
Kenosha, and this tunnelling of the Royal Gorge the 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 49 

three most wonderful railway achievements in the world. 
Cacti perk up here and there as we come out into the 
valley, and at Canon City the penitentiary, built of an 
arid stone in an arid waste, has a sixteenth-century 
Mexican look which puzzles me. 

We pass it at a distance and come on grass, cotton- 
wood trees, and bulrushes for the first time. Immense 
thunder-clouds arise and contend above. There is vivid 
lightning, and on the southern horizon two great dust 
spouts whirl like dancing dervishes. We watch their 
convolutions. The quaking asps which flourish at the 
very limit of vegetation begin to soften the red rocks. 

Just here I fancy I am coming on a Pueblo town. I 
am startled. I think I can see how the ladders lean. I 
see the trap-doors, and the open windows, — almost a 
lattice. We come near ; we pass it : it is a " luasli out." 
The lozenge-shaped windows which remind us of Oriental 
ruins in the far Punjaub are made by swallows who 
have plastered their muddy nests in friendly juxtaposi- 
tion upon the face of the cliff. A " washout " is a cliff 
of sandstone rising directly out of the moraine. Floods 
have washed or waters have purled all the friable por- 
tions away, leaving columns, towers, and pinnacles fit for 
the proudest feudal lord. Some stolen beauty must be 
hidden in these fastnesses. From the very walls of the 
castle itself this boulder, strayed half way down the 
slope, has surely fallen. In another moment we shall 
hear the clarion, and the still massive walls will 
bustle with men and arms ! This is the work of 
the imagination, but it is work which we repeat daily, 
hourly : we cheat ourselves over and over again. Now 
that I have seen these wide-spread remains, I perfectly 
understand what suggestions they offered to the primi- 

4 



60 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

tive inhabitants. In such a country the chff-builder 
and the rocky town are a natural result. Stupid indeed 
would the savage be, who did not accept Nature's hint 
to secure shelter! • 

Next an immense arid waste, where even the sage- 
brush will not grow. Only cacti gasp out a parched life 
between the mimic towns. Then we come upon a long 
range of towers and walls, whose cornices are dark, and 
which slope back as if to invite the lazy giants of Abou 
Simbel. The guide-books call these " Egyptian Tombs." 
Hundreds of them lie across the plain, and look in the 
distance like ruined cities. 

Somewhere along here the delinquent brakeman 
brought me wild convolvuli, their snowy petals rosy at 
the heart. They brought quick tears to my eyes, so 
often had I gathered them with my husband and chil- 
dren in a New England home. 

About an hour before we reached Pueblo, rain began 
to iall and the car to leak. Heavy thunder, vivid light- 
ning, mingled rain and hail tormented the passengers 
when they went out to dinner. It was fortunate that I 
was on the dry side of the car, which leaked badly, for 
I had been expressly told that I should never need a 
waterproof, and I was not properly protected. We 
waited for the Eastern train, and then ran out five or 
six miles, when we were signalled by a scout, and 
told that tlie road was badly waslied a little beyond ; so 
we backed into Pueblo and waited four hours. 

While we were rushing through the gorge this morn- 
ing and the terror-stricken passengers w^ere entreating 
the conductor to pause, the man said doggedly : " The 
company expect me to make my time." I turned 
quickly and said : " That would be a very fair excuse, if 
they did not also expect you to start on time." 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 51 

The town is a mile away. While we waited in the 
dreary-looking open space surrounded by a lew eat- 
ino*-houses, which constitutes the Pueblo station, there 
was a good deal of irritable talk about the morning's de- 
lay. I felt a little annoyed that everybody grumbled 
about inconvenience, and nobody seemed to see the 
moral failure of the company ; so I spoke up to that 
effect, and turned the conversation as soon as I could, 
by asking some people who had just entered the train 
about hotels at Colorado Springs. This attracted the 
attention of a gentleman, who stepped up and asked 
permission to be of service when we arrived, telling 
me, what I never should have dreamed, that Colorado 
Springs, known all over the country as a most de- 
sirable resort for invalids, had not a single comfortable 
hotel. The names of two had been given me, but on 
inquiry I found that they were both in the same hands. 
It was partly the talk about the train, partly I suppose 
the signs of extreme illness, that attracted him. 

As we had come down from Leadville we had gained 
four thousand feet ; and some of my worst symptoms 
abating, I had leisure to meditate on what I had suffered. 
I was perfectly willing to pay the price of this strange 
experience, and was now glad to talk over the mining 
towns with my pleasant companion. In a Leadville 
paper, which - he held, I read how a party of police had 
gone to the very bed of a bad woman to worm out of 
her the secret of her lover's hiding. I had known the 
same thing to be done in Boston with less excuse, but 
there the daily paper would not have gloated over the 
details. In a few moments we had found each other 
out. The gentleman was President Tenney, of Colorado 
College, the author of " Coronation " and other pleasant 



52 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

books ; and I was a friendly critic with whom he had 
been in correspondence, although we had never seen 
each other's faces. 

We continued to run through meadows and cotton- 
wood groves, streaked with washouts, until we reached the 
Springs. These washouts had quite a different character 
from those between Canon City and Pueblo. Tliey looked 
still more like the erections of man, a mound bein;^ often 
crowned by what looked like a fortress ; or a long wall 
would run across the plain for miles, as if it enclosed 
a Eoman town. When we reached the part of the 
road which had just been repaired for us, we saw wash- 
outs in the soft soil, occasioned by the morning's tem- 
pest, exactly like those that lifted themselves in rocky 
strength above. 

There was a pleasant little village bustle when we 
reached the station at the Springs. Some one came to 
meet my companion, and told him that his wife and ser- 
vant were both ill. He was himself brini>ini>' home 
from Leadville a clergyman sick with fever, for whom 
both nurse and physician had to be provided. He 
insisted, however, on putting me into the omnibus and 
sending me as his guest to the hotel, where I was to 
wait in the sitting-room until he came to take me to 
better quarters. 

The first thing which I saw in' Colorado Springs was 
a mole-hill, crowned by a flag-staff rising out of the plain, 
which I was told stood for the height of Mount Washing- 
ton of the White Hills. Tlien a double rainbow, which 
might have drunk in all the alkali of the plain it was so 
bright in color, climbed a cloud to the zenith, and finally 
hung there, a mere thread of light burned into a thun- 
derous vapor. The President came back at last. Diffi- 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 53 

ciilties Lad multiplied in connection with his sick friend; 
so I was only too glad to relieve him by remaining in 
the hotel for the night. There was, however, no room 
in tlie building L had entered. I walked a couple of 
blocks till we came to the old " Crawford," under the 
charge of the same proprietors. Here I was shown into 
a large room, which might have been perfectly comfort- 
able if any " woman's wit " had had to do with it. As 
it was, a petticoat and a shawl had to do duty for cur- 
tains at the wide window^s, which looked out on not 
merely the superb outline of Pike's Peak, but on a 
much frequented highway. The bed was perfectly clean, 
but large holes had been burned through the spread and 
blanket. The carpet was well swept, but full of holes ; 
and wherever one occurred it was held fast by a forth- 
putting and close-set circle of zinc nails. I learned 
long ago that I must not travel in out-of-the-way places 
without toilet covers and table cloths of my own. So 
some " turkey red " plaid came out of the depths of my 
bag to do duty on the very untidy furniture. Then I 
made interest with a fat boy who served as chamber- 
maid, and got a " carrier " full of water, and four towels, 
each about four inches square ! With a night's sleep, 
and such a bath as these w^ould secure, I hoped to anni- 
hilate the remnant of my suffering. 

Colorado Springs, Sunday, August 8, 1880. — Never 
shall I forget the view of the mountains which 
greeted my waking eyes, as I roused from a refreshing 
sleep, having wholly forgotten the miseries of extreme 
altitude. Breakfast was brought to my room ; but I 
tliink the strongest appetite w^ould have quailed be- 
fore it. I drank a glass of sour milk, and had re- 



54 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

course to Dr. Avery's lunch basket, where some crackers 
and some delightful crab-apple marmalade still looked in- 
vitinsf. I wrote several letters, carried them a few blocks 
to the post-office, and then went to the piazza of the 
Springs Hotel, which I left last night. It was Sun- 
day, but no one would have guessed it. Groups of peo- 
ple were seated all about. A pretty antelope ran up and 
down the steps. Gay riding parties formed for the day. 
The lofty peaks of the Divide were stretched out before 
me, mantled in tender rose-color, purple, and brov^'n. I 
drank some water from the iron springs, and made some 
talk with some people from Kansas ; but the lady prob- 
ably did not approve of me, for she took a chair and 
turned her back full upon me. 

My kind friend soon arrived to tell me he had found 
pleasant rooms and board for me on the other side of 
the town ; and almost immediately a carriage drove 
up and Mr. J. came to talvc me for a long drive. Soon 
after we started we took in a gentleman from New 
York, connected with the " Tribune." Then w^e picked 
up Miss S., who was spending the summer with her 
father, Judge li., and took her to church. Tliere was 
no time to go to my new rooms. We drove directly 
out upon the mesa, a high table-land, in this instance 
skirted by that spur of the Eocky Mountains to which 
Pike's Peak belongs, and by the Spanish Hills. Never 
shall I forget this drive. If the day was not made in 
Heaven, nothing better ever can be made there ; and the 
holiness of a saint's life could hardly lift one further 
above all care and misery than the purity of the air, the 
glow of the sunshine, or the refulgence of the sapphire 
vault it filled. The bluffs hid the strange peaks of the 
" Garden of the Gods." 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 55 

Althougli this is in some respects the best month 
to visit Colorado, I was too late for the immense vari- 
ety of the spring flowers ; but there were more than 
1 had ever seen before on so elevated a site, and they 
were of great size and intense color. Half-a-dozen 
^•arieties of sunflower and hawkweed pertly threw 
Ijack the sunshine, as if they said, " We have gold 
enough ; " tall spires of pentstemon, of all the colors 
from blue through purple to crimson, and horned pop- 
pies, flaunting great white banners, were to be seen on 
every side. 

We Avere bound to Cheyenne Canon. Not a soul 
did we meet on the wide expanse until we came to 
a sort of shed at the entrance of the canon, where 
milk and beer are sold. There was a gate beyond, be- 
hind which horses could be tethered. Here were a 
woman and child. We paid ten cents, and walked on 
for more than a mile. This canon is hidden in the 
gulches of Cheyenne Mountain. It twists and turns 
like the stream, which once cut a fierce way through the 
rocks that shut it in, and which now purls and murmurs 
as quietly as a trout-brook in a narrow channel at the 
bottom. This is said to be one of the wildest o-orofes in 
the Eocky Mountains, with walls rising in places to two 
thousand two hundred feet, with only a dangerous foot- 
path between. Nothing so mighty appeared in that 
part of it which I saw on this sweet sunnuer morning. 

We left Mr. J. lying on the grass, as he was not 
well enough to climb with us, and went a forty-five 
minutes' walk up the stream, which we crossed half- 
a-dozen times. Its walls, from six to eight hundred 
feet high, are crowded with tortured pinnacles of red 
sandstone, in the style in which the gods of Colo- 



56 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

rado are supposed to deliglit. At last I sat down on 
the trunk of a tree, in a spot which reminded me so 
much of my old Sunday haunt on Goat Island that I 
could hardly believe I was not there. A sudden turn 
in the rock brought us under a fall of two hundred feet, 
taken in three leaps. There is only a trickling drip 
now, but in the spring it is a foaming torrent ; and if 
the guide-books are to be believed, there are many more 
further in. It was green and delightful all the way, 
tapestried with hanging cresses and curling mosses. It 
is an easy and most lovely walk. If the red sandstone 
peaks would only change to granite, one might think it 
a White Mountain glen. The proportions are the same, 
although the dimensions may be much greater; and it is 
proportion, not size, which the eye takes in. I cannot 
judge of wells or walls out here. 

When some of us had drunk lemonade, and some of 
us milk, our friend rose from the grass, where he had 
lain ''under the w^eather" in one golden, sunshiny sense, 
and also in another not so inspiring. Then he took us 
over the beautiful mesa, wdth its broad sea-like expanse, 
bordered in the far distance with a deep line of ocean- 
blue. We met people with berries in their hands: 
tliey glowed like rubies in the sun. We went to the 
lovely home of " H. H.," — a quaint juxtaposition of four 
rooms and a hall, with what looked like an old porch 
made into an alcove for books. Nothing could be pret- 
tier. I wondered what she was doing far away as I 
washed the hands that had been pulling mosses, in the 
deep basin that sometimes receives her own. Every 
honest soul must bless her for the attempt to right the 
Ponca wrongs and stir the sense of justice in the 
national heart, which now takes her away from thi? 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 57 

charming spot. There are few houses in the world 
which have such a niagiiiiicent range in view as that 
which meets the eye from her porches. 

Judge E. had most kindly invited me to dine. His 
daughter had seen my husband in India ; and, in almost 
the saddest moment of my life, I had met the charm- 
ing lady who is now his wife. There were seven of us 
at table, and seven is a divine number. The conversa- 
tion was brilliant. One of the company went to lie 
down just after the soup, and begged us to remember all 
the bright things that were said. I wish I could do it ; 
but it were as easy to offer the sparkle of the champagne 
that was served. The Inniskillen lawsuit brought up 
Ben Butler and his continual impertinences. At one 
time, before a certain judge who shall be nameless, Ben 
took the judge's work out of his hands, and proceeded to 
sum up the case from his own point of view. 

The judge interrupted : " Mr. Butler, what am I here 
for?" 

" Indeed, Judge," retorted Butler insolently, " that is 
something I never could find out." 

Our New York friend thought it was a pity that But- 
ler had not had Judge Shaw to deal with on this occa- 
sion. It was Judge Shaw's wise and manly habit oc- 
casionally to put in a word to restore the equanimity of 
a flustered witness, so as to facilitate the course of jus- 
tice. He once did this for one of Butler's witnesses, 
and then turning to the counsel told him to proceed. 
Ben took no notice ; the command was repeated, and 
then the irritated judge exclaimed, — 

" What are you waiting for, Mr. Butler ? " 

" Only to see if any one else in the room has anything 
to say," Ben retorted with aplomb. 



58 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

"Apologize, or go to prison !" said the judge sternly. 

Butler disclaimed, but the judge was obstinate ; and 
apologize he did. 

The anecdotes are public, so I do not betray my host 
when I repeat them ; moreover, the day was one of the 
brightest of my life, and so forgive me, you who know, 
if I seem to speak when I should be silent. 

Our dinner consisted of seven courses : — 

1. Turtle soup, — with lemon and hard-boiled eggs. 

2. Boiled lamb, — with green peas, potatoes, and caper sauce, 

3. A salad of lettuce or tomato, — with mayonnaise. 

4. Broiled Inrds, — with mushrooms. 

5. Raspberries and cream. 

6. Eoman punch and sponge cake. 

7. Peaches, pears, plums, grapes, and two kinds of wine. 

I have given this bill of fare for a reason. It was what 
was offered by well bred people, who certainly had not 
more than two house servants, as an informal Sunday 
dinner, in a town which had not a civilized hotel, al- 
though perhaps something near to one might be found 
at Manitou, three miles away. The meal was perfect in 
preparation and serving, and it was as grateful to me as 
the sunshine itself It is curious to think of, — served 
in a little town of four thousand inhabitants, whicli is 
in reality a temperance colony, where a title to land is 
forfeited the moment a glass of liquor is sold. The 
great modern system of " canning " has made as great a 
change in the American cuisine as the telegraph and 
the telephone have wrought in commerce and the mar- 
ket. All things are possible at all times now, as we see 
here in a town not five years old. 

We went out on the piazza after dinner to take our 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 59 

coffee. Judge E. drew my attention to the "herder" 
who had just brought home his cow. He was a bright 
Spanish-looking boy, on horseback, swinging a lasso. ■ 
He comes every morning for the cow, and takes it with 
a dozen more to the fields. He watches it all day and 
brings it home at night, for a dollar a month. A poor 
neighbor earns a daily quart of milk by feeding it and 
milkinsj it in the shed. 

It was so pleasant to talk, and to see about me all the 
charms of civilized life, that I forgot my manners and 
stayed to tea without being asked ; then Judge and Mrs. 
R. walked home with me, on or rather out of their 
way to church. Home is now the pleasant room at 
Mrs. W.'s handsome liouse which President Tenney has 
provided. The house has lately been built by the widow 
of Mr. AV., of Springfield, Illinois. He was one of 
Abram Lincoln's pall-bearers, — one of the " neighbors 
and loving friends " who followed his body to its last 
rest. Until she replaces the capital which she expended 
in building, Mrs. W. consents to let her rooms; and 
these are so superior that it is a great blessing she is 
willing to do so. 

Colorado Springs, Aug. 9. — Another public benefactor 
is Miss Warren, who, two doors away from Mrs. W., 
accommodates a few lodgers, and supplies the best of 
table board for a large neighborhood. Miss Warren is 
one of a family of sisters who came out here from the 
neighborhood of Boston, in search of health. I hope 
she will not soon be the only one, for all are gone but 
two. They did not seek the mountains soon enough. 

I suppose the necessity of providing generously for 
those she loved induced Miss Warren to begin this 



60 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

work. I wish she could be persuaded to open a hotel. 
She does well and thoroughly all that she personally un- 
dertakes, and is never hurried or harried by her work, — 
a ^ew England woman of whom it is easy to feel proud. 
The breakfast w^as a luxury. Clean, well laid, delight- 
ful ; and as I went in and out in search of it the fifteen 
thousand feet of Pike's Peak lifted dun and purple 
shadows athwart tlie sky. Of course I knew that I 
could not climb it, and I knew it with the same regret 
that I felt when I found that I must not go to the 
Mountain of the Holy Cross at Leadville ; but the deli- 
cious air and the inspiring mountain ranges lifted this 
reoTct far out of the region of fretfulness. 

Soon after breakfast Mrs. E. came for me, and we 
started for Glen Eyrie, — so called from an eagle's nest on 
one of the cliffs that wall it in. This glen opens about 
half a mile to the north of the Garden of the Gods. 
As we drove over the mesa, its sea-like aspect was still 
further impressed upon me. Below Manitou and the 
Garden there was once a mighty arm of a primeval sea, 
which has left its traces in fossil beds of shell-fish ; and 
the meadow which it once covered still looks strangely 
like a salt marsh, from which the ocean has this moment 
retreated. How exquisite were the drifting colors on the 
mountains, — tlie quivering lights and shadows on this 
earthy sea ! Our glen is only the beginning of a small 
canon, and the Ute Pass is beyond the house. It is a 
pity this glen was ever separated from the Garden of 
the Gods, for it contains some of the most remarkable 
of the formations which have made the Garden famous. 

The carriacje-road winds for a while throuQ,li a lane 
bordered with forest trees, till we come to a rustic 
lodge; then tln^ough hedges of cotton-wood tangled 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 61 

with clematis and wild rose-bushes, covered with crim- 
son hips, until we break into the amphitheatre in which 
the house of General Palmer stands. Upon the lawn are 
mighty relics of a primeval time. There is the major 
dorno, an obelisk which is two hundred feet high, and 
leans like the tower of Pisa, — a square mass wdiicli 
looks like a castle on the Ehine or a fortress at Agra, a 
half-vitrified rock, which echoes the musical note it utters 
when it is struck ; and quite near the house is what Mrs. 
Palmer calls the " five toes of Atlas," whose immense 
red body lies leagues away, under the rocky ledge he so 
presumptuously tried to lift. This is a p)retty Kindergar- 
ten way of teaching her children mythology. * The five 
toes are five mighty red rocks, gradually sloping from the 
first to the last in line, and spreading slightly. Pines 
and evergreens of varied sort grow out and about, con- 
trasting prettily with the warm reds and shining wliite 
of the rocky walls. 

The charm of the glen and the cliaracter of the house 
remind me of many a like spot on the Essex coast. 
The house is built on a hospitable scale about a huge 
central chimney. 

Our friends rose from the piazza to welcome us, and 
led us into the entrance hall, which is intended to resem- 
ble that of an Eno-lish huntino-lodo-e. Its huo-e mantel is 
of the gnarled and twisted boughs of the cotton-wood 
and red cedar. Knots from the same tree-trunks are 
set as a sort of a basket bracket a.bove, and the hearth 
is an unfinished slab of fossil clams. At the foot of the 
stairway is a gigantic candlestick made of twisted 
bouglis. Heads of mountain sheep and bison are 
nailed to the walls, and their- skins lie under foot. 
The dining-room, library, and parlor which open into the 



62 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

hall are full of bric-a-brac, tastefully arranged. Among 
the things in the dining-room were two of the most 
finely wrought flasks from Cashmere ; they were of solid 
silver encrusted with gold. Our hostess was in keeping 
with the scene. As if she had walked out of an old 
portrait with the flasks in her hand, she stood before us. 
She wore a close-fitting morning robe of flowered tap- 
estry threaded with gold, over which hung a priestly 
cassock of black silk with hanging sleeves, lined and 
corded with crimson. Her beautiful hair was fluffed 
out till it appeared like a head-dress. Up and down 
the bank a huge shepherd dog tossed and tumbled two 
quaintly 'dressed children. The mixture of associated 
ideas started by all these things seemed to daze me. 
I stood half stupid, thinking how little while ago it 
would have been impossible to bring hither flasks of 
gold, wondering what the Venetian maiden thought of 
the bison, and whether a war-whoop would ever echo 
again from the miglity organ stone ! 

We drove away round some fenced fields and so on 
into the Garden of the Gods. All the way the shrub 
oak, which is such an ugly dry thing that we call it 
" scrub " in New England, made delicious verdure, with 
leaves as glossy as those of the microphyllum. Before us 
rose the lofty rocks which are called the " Gates," — three 
hundred and thirty feet high, by seven hundred long ! 
Eed as ochre they rise ; but out of the red sand at their 
feet springs a wall of white sandstone concreted with 
snowy lime. The Jurassic confronts the Triassic ! Even 
Ao-assiz asked wonderino;, " How ever came it here ? " 
Certainly never until fire and water joined hands in a 
way fit to crumble the everlasting hills ! The eccen- 
tricities of this park are well known. It contains about 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 63 

sixty acres, and boasts a very silly name. " Playground 
of the Titans" niiglit suit it better. It looks a little 
like a garden, with paths winding here and there. 
These are well sanded by disintegrating hills, bordered 
by Colorado bloom, and partly shaded by pine, cotton- 
wood, and a dwarf oak. No green clings to any stone in 
this State. Here the rocks look like lounging men, 
sleeping bear or buffalo, Turks' heads, and cockerels. At 
one place we saw a jack-rabbit with its long ears laid 
back ; and next a dainty parrot on a stone perch as 
round as an osier. From hence we drove on to Manitou, 
a true Swiss village. Here I tasted springs of soila and 
iron. Pxetty park-like glades open from the rustic way. 
Grace Greenwood's empty cottage nestles near it. Mon- 
ument Mountain, covered with fantastic fissures in stone, 
is between us and the sk}^, and its lovely park, like a 
vale of paradise, is half way up. A trail which rises 
three thousand feet in three miles leads up to it, and 
twenty-iive hundred of these feet are made in two miles ! 
I hated to leave the piney sweetness, the long-reaching 
woody paths, the alcoves of living green, which would 
be the dearest of homes if snow and maelstrom never 
befell. The old village of Colorado City, built on the 
site of the camps of Benton and Fremont, lay in our 
homeward way. It looked dull enough. Tlie old capi- 
tol building, a disreputable frame affair, is falling to 
pieces. Its life was too brief for dignified decay. 

At dinner I was surprised to meet two friends from 
Buffalo, — one on her way to join the gold-diggers, the 
other carino- for a sick son. She brought him here in 
what she thought a curable stage of consumption, only to 
see him fall ill of diphtheria at once. He tells me, like 
]\Ir. W., that the sage-brush consists of such solid alkali 



64 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

that it can hardly be called vegetable, and that if it be 
taken in season it is always an infallible remedy for the 
mountain fever. It is only necessary to steep it in cold 
water. 

After dinner I went with Mrs. S. to the curiosity 
shop. There were a few fine crystals and furs, but I 
saw what pleased me better, — a living cinnamon bear, 
a magnificent mountain lion, and two wildcats. 1 
wondered at the patience with which they trod their 
great cages. At the same }dace 1 bought some large 
crystals of celestine, which lias just been discovered 
here. It is clear and blue as the sky. 

Before we went home we called at the studio •of Alice 
Stuart, whose water-color portraits of Colorado flowers 
are quite famous. I was amazed at the great variety 
she could show me, as well as at her steady improvement 
in the work. She had a class of ladies painting, and 
painting well ; but I felt a sort of angry impatience that 
they were not sketching Pike's Peak in oil, instead of 
puttering over pentstemons and mentzelias. Then Pres- 
ident Tenney came to take me to drive. He seemed a 
good deal worn by the care of his sick fiieud and the 
pressure of committee meetings. 

Colorado Springs is regularly laid out in squares. It 
has wide avenues, well set with beautiful trees, along 
wdiich irrigating trenches run, with feeders leading 
into every garden. But there is something wrong. 
Diphtheria and scarlet fever are at work here, in 
an atmospliere which, if men were as wise as they 
are presumptuous, need never have been tainted by 
either. We drove out by the college, which is built 
of the tender- tinted stone I saw first in Denver. The 
college does not need large buildings. It works on 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 05 

a sort of University plan, sending out its teachers on a 
broad humanitarian basis. President Tenney lives nearly 
opposite, on Cascade Avenue. A broad, irrigating 
stream flows down this avenue, dropping a foot or two 
liere and there, with a cool murmur of content. Tlie 
road lies along the base of the Divide, and all the houses 
face the mountain ranges. Just under the college 
walls a little rabbit started up ; too innocent of human 
ways to be frightened, it let the President drive round 
and round it, and we soon after treated a lark in the 
same way. The latter wore a white cravat with a black 
edge, and very stiffly starched. T wish I could have 
heard it sing. 

We drove to Austin's Bluff. We ascended by a 
heart-breaking and carriage-breaking road, shaded by 
yellow pines. The proprietor of a big sheep-ranch 
bought this bluff in order to preserve the timber. A 
thunder-cloud had been gathering for some time. Now 
and then it spit spitefully in our faces, but it seemed to 
be bloated with wind, which constantly escaped with 
complaining voice to the shelter of the pines. How 
they bent and answered pitifully, — moaning and mur- 
muring till the whole air echoed at last to a mighty 
rushing call ! The road had been so badly washed that 
even the horse was nervous, and we lost a good deal of 
the expected calm pleasure of our drive. Often the horse 
lapped his feet over each other to keep his footing. To 
the North rose the Divide, nearly eight thousand feet 
high. Away at the South, where a grove of trees marks 
the course of the river are the Sierra Mojada and 
the Spanish Peaks ; eastward the sea-like plain. The 
clouds were strangely lighted. The loneliness, delicious 
at first, soon grew oppressive, and we darted over the 

5 



66 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

mesa, under scattering monitory drops, looking off one 
hundred and sixty miles. 

A sudden death within the circle of my friends 
changed so many of my plans that I should have left 
this afternoon, only Miss W. proposed an excursion to 
the Cheyenne Mountain, for which I consented to stay. 

Auf/. 10, 1880. — T am going away laden with treas- 
ures. Among the most curious is a granite tube con- 
creted with lime, which I took from a twio- on Austin's 
Bluff'; excejDt that it is not glazed internally, it is pre- 
cisely like a short fulgurite. For some reason that I 
do not know, Miss W.'s excursion dropped through. 
Mrs. S. was the one faithful friend who set me on my 
way. The train ran slowly off, through meadows washed 
out in such a way as to suggest the more serious work 
in stone near Canon City. The plains were verdant for 
Colorado, and old donjons and castle walls seemed to 
surmount every mound. The seats are very narrow, and 
at some inconvenience to myself I made room for a little 
damsel of sixteen, travelling alone. She wanted a pen- 
cil, and I furnished it ; she ^'ot into trouble about her baof- 
gage checks, and I straightened the matter out ; she 
was thirsty, and I lent her my cup : but she put my 
pencil in her pocket, and at Denver station walked away 
at the first glimpse of a friend without so much as say- 
iuG^ " Good nioht ! " 

Yet she belonged to the same generation as President 
Tenney's little maid of seven, who, wlien I made my 
farewell call this morning, mixed me a glass of lemonade 
without orders, and brought it, saying sweetly, " Taste 
it; it's so cool it will do you good." 

When the omnibus reached my boarding place I 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. G7 

found it dark and silent. From the opposite corner 
came shouts, and I saw waving hands. Dr. Avery cried, 
" Welcome home ! " and I found that my landlady had 
taken herself away in my absence, and that Dr. Avery's 
servant had kindly moved all my possessions into her 
lovely home. There I gratefully sat down, only to be sur- 
prised in a few moments by a vision of one of my friends 
from the Springs, supposed to be too ill to travel. 

As I journeyed through the plains to-day I was occu- 
pied a good deal with my own thoughts ; and these 
thoughts, in spite of my pleasure in the mere fact of 
living in this sunshine and delicious air, in spite of the 
kindness of most generous friends, were very sad. In 
the first place, I am greatly impressed by the want of 
all proper sanitary regulations wherever I go. The 
irrigation made necessary by the dry climate has its own 
dangers. The slope of the flumes or irrigating vats, and 
the distribution of the water over private property must 
be watched, or stagnant pools will appear, and disease 
follow, Denver is regularly laid out, looks green and 
brisk and pretty; but its business streets are very dirty, 
and there are many inexplicable bad odors in the lower 
sections. Everybody in Denver declares it is perfectly 
healtliy, but as soon as you reach the next town you are 
told, and I tliink truly, that it is riddled with typhoid 
fever. My dear friend lives here because the sun shines ; 
but I have seen " clouds and thick darkness," yes, even 
drops of rain, every afternoon ! AVhy should that young 
lad sicken with diphtheria, and why should scarlet 
fever flaunt through the streets in Colorado Springs ? It 
is a very small place, in tlie purest air and finest cli- 
mate in the world; and yet I cannot call it healthy! 
Somebody is very much to blame. 



68 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

But worse than this is the moral malaria which per- 
vades this whole mining community ; for Denver is only 
a base of supply for the mining towns, as Leadville is 
only a base for the camps about it, — and with the 
fortunes of the miners it must rise or fall. 

I have been an unintentional listener to all sorts of 
talks ever since I crossed the Mississippi, and every- 
where I have found a fearful "lust of gold." Every- 
where they talk of the Indian reservation as if it were 
richer in gold than any other part of the country. 
Again and again I have heard miners say that they have 
gone privately to locations within it and brought away 
bits of ore. They deride the slowness of the Govern- 
ment ; they insist that if it does not move they will go 
with pistols in their hands to prosecute this greedy 
search. I have been amazed at the openness with 
which all this has been said, and my heart has sickened 
over the stories of treachery and wrong. Nor is there 
the least reason to think that the Reservations ofier any- 
thing better than these men now have. The simple fact 
that they are shut out from some special ridge or placer 
sets them to dreaming about it. 

Aug. 14, 1880. — My last day in Denver was devoted 
to gathering in some of Jackson's fine photographs, and 
buying some delicate fossils from Green Eiver. These 
consist of little fish about six inches long, of several 
species. They lie in a cream-colored stone which is 
called Green River shale. This sph'ts in thin layers, of 
the most fragile sort, showing the anatomy of the fish 
or insects it holds. These seem to be printed on it 
rather than imbedded in it, and must be packed with 
great care. Parts of this rock are saturated with petro- 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 69 

leiim, like the " Stink-stone " of western New York ; 
and during- the buikling of the railway the rock took 
fire and burned for days, — "a pillar of fire " by night. 
1 have stayed in Denver longer tlian I intended, that I 
might recover perfectly before going among strangers. 
Mrs. W. and myself both contracted in Leadville an 
ulceration of the throat and lips, which has yielded 
very slowly. It was thought to be due to the arsenical 
fumes of the smelting furnaces. 

I left the house about 6 o'clock this morning, with 
reluctant steps. Colorado has been only a dream of 
beauty. I was well provided with bread, marmalade, 
and Crosse & Blackwell's potted meats. The road 
through Central Colorado to the junction, running par- 
allel with that from Cheyenne to Denver, by which I 
came, seems much more attractive than that. It runs 
alono- the ediie of the " World's huntino'-oTounds," where 
elk, deer, antelope, and bear tempt English gentlemen to 
linger year after year. It also leads through the heart of 
the wheat fields and the mining regions. On all sides of 
us swept solitary horsemen on the most superb horses. 
Drovers and herders, clinging with their knees to any 
part of the creature they might happen to hit, seemed 
to trust to the swaying Spanish " lope," as if a fall were 
unheard of Up and down the abrupt gaps the animals 
struggled like cats, while they swept over the plain as 
easily as leaves fly before the wind. 

" H. H." says somewhere that Eotterdam is a great 
deal wetter than Venice, because it pretends to be dry 
land. So I thought to-day that some of the towns we 
passed in the clear cool morning were a good deal 
browner than they would have been if they had not pre- 
tended to be o-reen ! 



70 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

Walled bluffs cut the mountain range midway, as we 
sped south. Oleoma, pentstemon, blue, purple, and rose 
color, sunflowers and euphorbia, scarlet painted-cups, 
and escholtzia embroidered the meadows, and the trans- 
parent banner of tlie horned poppy still waves over gay 
beds of mountain pink, — and they call it too late for 
flowers I 

Every now and then little door-ways showed them- 
selves on the hillside, but here the mining is quiet. It 
is an industry. The prairie cannot be turned into a 
gambling hell like Leadville. At Ealston the blue 
peaks lift themselves above a soft, gray, wave-like ex- 
panse of meadow, while afar off the great Divide or 
table land, held up by the central hills, showed a dis- 
tance purple as that of ocean. From it Alexander, had 
he strayed so far, might have seen two worlds to con- 
quer. Is there any other State, I wonder, where a 
single glance will take in a whole country ? Branches 
of the creeping Platte cross and recross the way. The 
lark rises, soft and lovely in color, his throat muffled in 
black and white : he has sixteen different songs, and I 
have not heard one of them ! Here leaps a saucy 
jack-rabbit with such long ears ! The thistles show 
bundles of purple splendor as large as my fist, and on 
them dance, not butterflies, but blackbirds by the score ! 
Bulrushes show themselves at last, and I perceive the 
sweet odors of a farm-yard ; about it piles of the soft- 
tinted stone I saw in Denver. These blocks, just cut 
from the quarry, are not cleaner than the churches which 
the Spaniards built of the same stone three hundred 
years ago. Never did I see such contrasts in the color 
of the soil as here, — red, blue, yellow, and brown appear. 
What would a child born here think if he saw the words 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 71 

" earth color," or " earthy ? " What a limited experience 
has given birth to our literary phrases ! Fortunate for 
the poets that literature began where the courses of the 
season exist ! 

Lovely are the orchards of Longmont and Loveland. 
Estes Park, somewhat off the road to the left, is a lit- 
tle wonder of Nature's landscape-gardening set in a 
cup, rmiri^ed by snow-capped mountains. Fort Collins 
is well irrigated and well planted ; and, chief wonder 
of all, we saw here green fields, surrounded by white 
fences. Apricots were plenty and delicious. 

All over the fields, wherever there is a hollow or a 
little runnel in which water can hide, flowers tell the 
dewy secret ; and we see that the ribbon fashion in gar- 
dening had a freer and far lovelier prototype in Nature. 
Horned poppies, which I saw in Southern Colorado five 
or six inches across, are not much bigger than a six- 
pence here, — which seems to imply that the water has 
harvest work to do. Tliere is fine red sand in the 
water-courses, and great banks of soda, or some boracic 
deposit. Hundreds of dead horses — that horror of the 
mining regions — curse the plains. The raven who taught 
Cain how to bury Abel ought to come here and instruct 
the miners ! Dark clouds were gathering while I won- 
dered at it all, and when I got to Hazard a tempest of 
rain and hail was driving across the station. For once 
a porter gave ready and pleasant service. There was 
not a moment to spare. " Without money and without 
price," I and my baggage were hurried about five hun- 
dred feet across the platform, from one train to the 
other, and I entered the Pullman drenclied ! And this 
is the road over which I was forbidden to carry an 
umbrella or a water-proof ! 



72 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

I am now once more on the main line of travel, on 
the way from Cheyenne to Ogden. The cars are them- 
selves cleaner than those I left a fortnight ago, but the 
dressing-room is very untidy. Now that I understand 
that I have neither courtesy nor cleanliness to expect, 
it is all very easy to bear. 

I found a young girl in the car, living with one of the 
" shepherd kings " at Cheyenne. She came out^for a visit 
seven years ago, and has never gone back. Until to- 
day slie had never entered a car since her arrival, but 
has almost lived on horseback. She was on her way to 
Laramie, and I learned with pleasant surprise that the 
"shepherd Iving " she spoke of was the son of an old 
neighbor of my own in Boston, — a lady well known 
now in the great charities of New York City. It does 
not seem longer ago than yesterday, that, a child when 
she was a biide, I carried her flowers and verses on her 
wedding- niorninsj. 

I lent the young woman my button hook ; I " found 
the place " in my guide for an old lady in the corner, 
and got out my medicines for a case of cholera morbus 
in the next section, — reflecting all the while what a 
comfort it was to know how to travel. 

The rain increased. It was so heavy that for the 
first time I was glad I was not in a coach. The settlers 
think the rainfall increases on the plains every year. 
As I watched, a double rainbow made its appearance 
in the northeast. Both bows were almost complete cir- 
cles cut slightly by the horizon. Within the interior 
and finer bow the cloud was almost white, but the space 
enclosed between the two was black with storm. A 
sudden flush of light which filled the air made me turn. 
The sun was sinking in a golden bath. From the ocean 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 73 

of splendor rose a long blue cliff of cloud, and above it 
the mackerel sky was fretted with gold. I knew as I 
looked for the first time what suggested certain wonder- 
ful decorations to the Japs. 

Sunday, Aug. 14, 1880. — In spite of rules the porter 
kept possession of the dressing-room, while I waited for 
it. If the company choose to allow him this privilege, 
why does lie not take the gentlemen's room ? I suspect 
it is because he knows that inen would not stand it. 

The piles of contorted rock which form the hills along 
our way are capped with tent-like roofs ; out of them rise 
walls of red and green shale, and mimic castles crown the 
summits of these walls. I got out of the cars at Green 
Eiver, where people who are not wise enough to carry 
their lunch baskets are invited to breakfast. I found 
no good fossils. It is better to buy in the towns. 

Geologically considered this is a most wonderful re- 
gion. The color of the river is vercU antique, like the 
mass of the Niagara river below the whirlpool, and the 
color is imparted by that of the green marl through 
w^hich it flows. There are ludicrous forms beetling from 
the cliffs. One giant of eld dropped a club here, eight 
hundred feet long ; and another has set down his teapot, 
about six hundred feet in diameter, with such force that 
no one has yet been found to lift it. Here not only the 
pretty little fresh-water fish, but flies and bugs are safely 
laid away for us in the fresh cream-colored beds ; and 
close by, but a little to the north. Professor Marsh found 
his three-toed horse, tlie Areodon, and the great Titan- 
otherium with a jaw four feet long. Big as this creature 
may have been, he failed to escape the miseries of modern 
life ; for not far off enormous mosquitoes were caught 



74 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

napping in stone, and gigantic fleas and cockroaches had 
as good a chance at his toe-nails as if he had been a 
passenger in a modern East Indiaman. These things 
are found in a snccession of hiittcs, which look like 
ruined cities, and are being rapidly washed into tlie 
plain by snow and storm. To the south is the canon 
of the Colorado, where Major Powell encountered and 
conquered greater dangers tlian he fought at Shiloh. 

A lonely sand-hill crane stamped ronnd an enclos- 
ure in front of the eating-heuse. He was called a stork, 
and imparted a Parisian air to the locality ! The old 
woman who waked up her husband one morning in this 
neighborhood, to look at a " petrified Solomon's temple," 
was not (piite so absurd as she seemed. "David's 
Tower " stands here as square and solid as it does on 
the walls of Zion. 

The red cliffs and rifts in the soil were fringed with 
unknown purple bloom after we passed Piedmont. 
These flowers have nev^er been named, but is there an- 
other country in the world where there would be no pop- 
ular name for them ? The Indians had a name, I feel 
sure. Here is a snow-shed on a ridge of the Uintahs 
twenty-seven hundred feet long. 

A little northwest of Hilliard are two whole moun- 
tains of sulphur, nearly pure. It is as inexhaustible as 
the solid gold, and suggests the region which ought to 
underlie the fire-ridden plain. The thin laminae of the 
" candle earth," or fossil parafhne, which are found at 
Green Eiver, make a bolder appearance in the valley of 
the Wasatch, and some of it took fire and burned for days 
when the workmen were busy on the road. Here this 
may possibly be only clay saturated with oil ; but in 
Southern Utah it looks like cannel coal, and can be 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 75 

moulded by the fiugers like putty. Now clinging to tlie 
second step of the rear platform I enter Echo Canon. 
Almost on a level with tlie miglitiest peaks of the Wa- 
satch at first, we dart down to the bottom of the valley. 
It is five thousand nine hundred and seventy- four feet 
above the level of the sea, with mighty walls panelled 
and buttressed in gray and red stretching eight hundred 
feet toward the sky. Castle Eock on one of these walls 
lias open casements and an arched doorway, which gives 
us a momentary glimpse of ,the blue sky over its wide 
courts. The swallow, primeval mason, has cut the oriel 
windows and fretted the cornices. Indeed, it seems as 
if in the millions of years that passed after these heights 
were lifted, Nature herself beqan to sii^h for a human 
presence, and undertook to give a home-like look to 
tliese great valleys. At one spot, before open portals, a 
tremendous sphinx lies couchant, mourning the. loss of 
her head-dress. The columns of the temple behind her 
are red, capped with gray. Suddenly you come on 
yellow sandstone, and the gorge narrows. 

This is where the Mormons once intrenched them- 
selves. The town of Echo itself shows signs of life. 
Farming lands appear. The red sandstone is graciously 
hidden by waving green, and a cliff of conglomerate juts 
out. Beyond Echo, rounded terraced cones of red rock 
rise like battlements, and take that name. Then 
"Witches in Waterproof," somewhat worse for wear, 
watch over a narrow pass. A good deal of landscape 
rock, etched by the artist we know as Dendrite, is found 
here and further along by the " Devil's Slide." To the 
south are two mighty ledges of granite eight hundred 
feet above us. From the summit to the base of one of 
these run two parallel ridges of rock. They start fifty 



76 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

feet out of the side of the mountain, about twenty feet 
apart. As you see them from the road, it looks as if 
some anxious ogress had walled in a coast for His 
Satanic Majesty, who seems to have scorched his way 
from top to bottom. 

A little further on, in Weber Canon, the front of a 
wholly inaccessible cliff is fretted with liollows and flut- 
ings, said to be made by the mountain wind on the 
principle of the sand-blast. That principle was first 
applied to the arts and made useful to mankind at the 
suggestion of Old Ocean : how long before this the 
mountains knew the story, Hindu architecture seems 
to me to proclaim emphatically. In the deepest of these 
hollows countless eagles build within the range of the 
traveller's eye, yet far beyond the possibility of his in- 
terference. 

At Peterson an immense gap opens in the mountains. 
The Sweetwater plunges madly by, as if it would cut 
the hills in twain. A comparatively low ledge heads it 
off, and turns it sharply to the north. Defeated again, 
it makes a perfect right angle, cuts its way to the left 
behind the opposing ledge, and rushes into the great 
Salt Lake basin, — a wonder to the eye and a puzzle to 
my pen ! 

Here we seethe mountains, whicli rise as islands from 
the waters of the lake, and the loveliness born of daily 
rural toil replaces the majesty of Nature. Devil's Slide, 
Devil's Gap, Devil's Gate ! — three of the most wonderful 
things upon our road. Is it not strange liow men always 
invent a demon to account for any material marvel ? 
Moran can never exaggerate the red and yellow of this 
region ; Nature will always be too much for him. We 
pass out of these mighty ruins, millions of years old, 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 77 

and not yet tender enoiigli to win mosses or men to 
their bosom, set all over still with beacons of flamin"- 
color ! Joyfully we glide into the green valley of the 
Weber, to find luxuriant Mormon ranches stretching as 
far as we can see. Like a garden they glow with flow- 
ers. Tall hollyhocks, which tell in rosy color of the 
habit of the forsaken English home, fence in the fields 
of corn, — delicious oasis in our alkaline desert ! The 
sweetness of new-mown hay floats on the still air, and 
far too soon we drift into the station, and with the usual 
inconveniences and disappointments find our way across 
the platform, and wait for the train to Salt Lake. What 
strange groups of Mormon people surrounded me while 
I waited ! Man.y liad been to Ogden for a day's shoj)- 
ping, as Brooklj'n people go over to New York, and 
were waiting for the last train. There were stunted 
and crippled youths, flimsy attempts at finery, and a 
good deal going on which would have exasperated Brig- 
ham Young. Some of the women were returning with 
their babies from long journeys, and one man at least 
welcomed his wife fondly. 

Into the car I went, almost the only gentile. How 
critical the Mormon problem has now become may be 
gathered from tlie fact that in this car, crowded with 
men, women, and children, I heard no theme started 
save the domestic relations or discomforts of those in 
whom the speakers were interested. The heavy purple 
range of hills which walls in the valley at Ogden, a 
spur of the Wasatch, seemed so near and so peculiar 
that I thought I must be mistaken about it. I asked 
what hills they were of all the people round about, but 
no one knew ! 

In the whole number of more than forty persons T 



78 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

saw only one instance where the man and the woman 
seemed to talk to each other, as if they truly " kej^t com- 
pany." These were newly married, and their first baby 
was in the arms first of one and tlien the other, — handed 
round, as somebody says, as if it were something good 
to eat. They, too, talked of a young friend's unhappy 
marriage. All the faces in the car looked full of care. 
Some seemed unhappy, and a jealous or suspicious look 
was stamped on every face. This opinion must not be 
supposed to be the result of my prepossessions. I did 
not realize that the people about me would be Mormons 
until I was surprised into admitting it. 

The wind blew violently as we scudded away south 
between rural homes trimly kept and set in small farm- 
steads, with every appearance of comfort. Very far supe- 
rior they must be to anything their owners have ever 
possessed in the far-off regions of their birth. A tender 
sunset sky, flushed with rose color, hung behind tlie hills. 
Tlien the darkness fell, and, except that there was more 
courtesy toward me as a w^oman than I have encoun- 
tered anywhere, my arrival was just what it might be 
in any town of the same size. 

At the hotel I was surprised to find a " set basin" in 
my chamber ; and after various attempts to air out 
the odors, I was obliged to ask for a room in which 
this convenience did not exist. After sending out 
the letters of introduction which had led me to come to 
Utah now, instead of waiting until my return in the 
autumn, I went down to supper. In the dining-room I 
found two delightful English people just come in from 
a drive. Captain B. was quite lately of Her Majesty's 
Fourth Dragoon Guards. He is on his way back from 
a two-years' , tour round the world, in which his wife 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 79 

has been his companion. He ah-eady talks of returning 
after a twelvemonth, to hunt elk and bear in the North 
Park. They have been to Thibet and the Sandwich 
Islands ; have slept in tents and on the ground. 
They have followed Isabella Bird everywhere, and could 
tell me a great deal about my beloved Lady Duff Gor- 
don. Miss Bird makes herself dear and regretted every- 
where. Tlie story of her life in the Sierras is no fiction. 
The hunters, the miners, and the desperadoes know her 
name, and speak of her with affection. The wise news- 
papers which accuse her of writing about things she 
never saw w^ould be afraid to repeat such charges, I 
think, after a talk with those who have known her. 

In Egypt Captain B. had lodged in Lady Gordon's 
quarters and employed her servants, in whom she had 
stimulated a wild enthusiasm of love. When I spoke 
of the mystery of her lonely life there, I gathered that 
the exasperations of her illness were such as to make 
it the pleasantest life not only for her, but for those who 
loved her. I did not ask a second question. Long ago 
I knew that one petition must be forever stricken out 
of my litany, — " From sudden death, good Lord deliver 
me ;'' In the present state of-society there is no mercy 
to elderly people like sudden death. The time seems 
to have gone by, when the young can be patient with 
the eccentricities that illness, sorrow, or age may de- 
velop in tliose who have loved them best. 

Salt Lake, Mondmj, Aug. 16, 1880. — As soon as I 
rose, I sent a note to the B.'s asking them to join me in 
a drive. I had no response to my notes of introduc- 
tion, and supposed that the gentlemen to whom they were 
addressed must be out of town. 



80 MY FIEST HOLIDAY. 

We took an open barouche, with a bright driver 
who tried to make up by talking for the paucity of 
the sights. 

I was much struck on the train last night by the lan- 
guid, unhealthy look of the children who ran back and 
forth, and what seemed the lack of strong healtli in most 
of the youDg men. I also saw more cripples than I 
should have seen in any of our large towns, in the 
same number of hours. Speaking of this thought- 
fully to Mrs. B., who arrived in time to attend ser- 
vice in the Tabernacle, she replied at once : " This 
is not an American town, nor are these American 
people. These are my country-people, not yours. In 
their former homes their lives were inconceivably low, 
and passed in an utter absence of comfort. I know, for 
I have seen them where they originate. Denizens of a 
Christian land, polygamy was. not a degradation to them, 
but a step upward in the social scale. Before they be- 
came Mormons these people might have sold their wives 
in the market-place, or have exchanged them with each 
other. They would only have followed in the footsteps 
of all their people. Those of them who are not Welsh 
and Cornish miners are Scandinavians, — Jutlanders, or 
Finlanders." 

I quote this reply with great satisfaction ; for every 
hour that I linger confirms this judgment. It is evi- 
dent that the Mormon people regard their numerous 
wives as so many servants, and estimate their children 
in a way that reminds me of our New England ances- 
try, who, faithful husbands each to a single wife, still 
talked of a son "born to me, prized at seventy-five 
pounds sterling," or of a daughter as equal to fifty. 

One of the bystanders said that the original band of 



MY FIPvST HOLIDAY. 81 

Mormons were a puny race, but that their cliilclren 
raised in Western air and freedom were stalwart. This 
may apply to the rural regions ; it does not to Salt Lake 
or Ogden. The present feeble physical condition of many 
grows out of an entire ignorance of physical and sani- 
tary laws. Here, as at Denver and Colorado Springs, I 
began to hear at once of diphtheria and typlioid malaria. 
Excusable in cities, where it is difficult for wise muni- 
cipal management to follow fast enough on the increase 
of population, this is utterly inexcusable and unen- 
durable here. The irrigation of Salt Lake City, which 
has wrought superb results as regards harvests of wheat, 
tons of hay, and the most exquisite fruit and vegetables 
ever seen, is not perfect, and threatens serious danger. 
It does not always surmount the inevitable obstacles of 
decaying sluices or changes of grade, and forms many 
stagnant pools ; while in what they call the lower part 
of the town the water fairly oozes out of the soil. The 
garbage of the houses lies in unhealthy heaps about 
them, and the drainage is on the surface. 

We passed first the beautiful houses and gardens of 
the Walker Brothers, who owm the well-kept hotel, and 
are apostate Mormons, — men who might, even five years 
ago, have been hurried to quick death but for the pres- 
ence of Federal authority. These houses might belong 
to gentlemen anywhere. Upon the green lawns the 
sprinklers were set, and above them rose, in strange un- 
suitableness, the grotesque trees and shrubs of Southern 
and semi-tropical Utah. These things are only native 
to a soil where grass does not grow, and both lawns and 
plants brought back the memory of the Hunnewell 
place at Wellesley, and some of the Centennial achieve- 
ments at Germantown. 



82 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

Then came lovely irrigated farms, with fields of wlieat 
such as no Eastern farmer sees, even in his dreams. 
Certain portions of these were pointed out as church 
property, tithes of rich men's possessions. In order to 
get a full understanding of the great amphitheatre in 
which the city is built, to get a glimpse of the circular 
sweep of the hills, and reach the spot whence the Mor- 
mons first saw their promised land, we drove out to the 
penitentiary, where we watered our horses. While this 
was done, I made a rapid inspection of the jail. It is 
a small, neatly kept building of yellow brick, manned 
by Federal officers. Of the forty inmates not one is a 
woman. The thirsty soil cries out all around for the 
spade, and for these forty men not an hour's work is 
provided! Is reform possible to idleness? Irrigating 
ditches could be dug to advantage for miles and miles 
throughout the territory. In the grand mountain pass 
through which the Mormons entered the valley there is 
now a great lager-beer brewery. A few trees make an 
excuse for as many tables and chairs, and a cabinet of 
minerals in a shed near by turns speculative minds to 
the great lottery of mining, which Brigham Young had 
the excellent good sense to frown upon. 

We got out of the carriage here and tasted the lager, 
which proved rather bitter. I have heard that the word 
"lager" is not recognized in Germany; but I can hardly 
believe it, as it was introduced here by German-born 
brewers. Tiie word means a store-house ; and, when 
applied to beer, indicates a kind winch must not be 
used until it is seasoned, any more than new wine. As 
we sat talking about it there flashed again into my 
mind a dream which I had lately, and which is worth 
telling, because it shows upon what obscure clews the 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 83 

niincl, when not preoccupied, can act : preoccupation 
in our waking hours is strong enough to blot out their 
existence. A friend asked me just before I left Buffalo 
what a prawlong was. She is curious in confectionery ; 
and in an old book she had found this word, but could 
get no explanation of it. I thought it out in all the 
languages I knew, and I tried to guess what word a 
clumsy Britisher could mispronounce into j??^a2^;/o??/7. I 
did not see through it at all, when two or three nights 
ago, at least three weeks after the question had been 
asked, I heard a voice say in my sleep, " Prawlongs ? — 
oh, that is pralines ; the last syllable was nasal once. 
Before the Academy made gender a matter of euphony, 
a 7:>?'«/m was a burnt almond." I woke instantly and 
wrote it down, for the whole impression was so slight 
that I should have lost it before morning ! 

Out of just such habits of the mind, only when 
applied to more important themes, the old faith in 
miracles and oracles arose : and no wonder, for at first 
it seems impossible to account for such action. 

Near ns as we sat, but a little lower, outside the brew- 
ery yard, is Mount Ensign, the " Mount of Prophecy." 
From a spur of the mountain rises a sort of oral crown, 
which may be one hundred and fifty feet high. Here 
Bri"ham Youncj asserted that he received the intimation 
that the valley was to become the site of a great people. 
And here I have no doubt that he did receive it, for he 
was a man of insight, sufficient to foresee possibilities, 
and of energies equal to the undertaking. Only a very 
dull mind need have been impervious to the hint. 

At Camp Douglass, wdiere comfortable looking build- 
ings are erected of a reddish stone, I saw Indian cap- 
tives digging ditches in charge of a United States officer. 



84 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

They belonged to that half- civilized cross which may be 
defined as neither man nor Indian. 

An extensive view of Salt Lake, with the valley and 
the surrounding mountains, is obtained between the 
brewery and the camp. I despair of giving you any 
idea of its beauty, although you have visited many lakes. 
Lake Huron, if seen at all from a height, is like the 
ocean ; the lakes of Central New York are on too small 
a scale. This sheet of silver glows in the sun, sur- 
rounded by snow-capped ranges; and floating on its 
bosom are mighty island peaks like those which surround 
Ulls water. It gives the impression of a vast expanse, 
hardly broken by these mighty upheavals. It shows no 
alkaline desolation; its rosy orchards give no hint of 
apples of Sodom. 

As we drove back into the town we went first to 
Temple Block, an enclosure of ten acres, surrounded by 
a liigh wall. This contains the Tabernacle, the Assembly 
room, and the New Temple. The Tabernacle can be used 
only in summer, as the expense of lighting and heat- 
ing it would be so enormous that the money has never 
been provided. For winter use, when the audiences are 
necessarily much smaller, the Assembly room was built. 
Tliis looks like a cheap Masonic Temple. Yery odd fres- 
cos, prophetic pictures of other temples and cities, are 
painted in sepia upon the ceiling, reminding one of noth- 
ing so much as George Washington Custis's ambitious 
attempts at Arlington. Some workmen were coolly eat- 
ing their lunch within the altar rail, and when we went 
in they were vehemently discussing a trifle of Church 
discipline. A very narrow-minded set they looked. 

East of Temple Block a large number of buildings are 
enclosed in a curious and very heavily buttressed wall of 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 85 

stone. These are the Tithing offices with their spacious 
courts, the Emigration office, and the old residence of Brig- 
ham Young. Looked at in a certain direction, the gable 
windows of the President's house suggested tlie popular 
name of the " Dove Cot." I counted ten in one row. 
These buildings are all of the color of adobe, and a 
section of the heavily buttressed walls shows a pyra- 
midal structure ; they are three or four feet thick at' the 
bottom, and about eighteen inches at the top. Wliat- 
ever Brigham Young undertook he did thoroughly well; 
there was no "jobbing " under his administration. Wages, 
which to all men emigrants consist simply of shelter 
and rations from the Tithing house, offer few tempta- 
tions to a cheat, while the certainty of an immediate 
employment sufficient to secure physical comfort was 
an incentive to emigration that n:iany Governments 
would do well to furnish. In distributing new-comers 
Brigham w^as very wise. It often happened that the 
new emigrant came out expecting to work for a friend ; 
but when this was not possible he was sent to a bishop 
havin^j change of a diocese in which some of his coun- 
try-people could be found, which did much to check the 
homesickness of the Scandinavians. 

Directly opposite Brigham Young's own door a large 
arch is thrown across State Street, surmounted by a spread 
eagle. It was impossible not to ask what it meant. Our 
driver replied that it was originally erected as a sort of toll 
gate, through which all the hay was brought in from the 
meadows. Every third load was seized as the property 
of the church, and driven into the Tithing yard. If this 
was true, it must have been when the pastures were held in 
common, as they used to be in some of the Connecticut 
River towns. It is so no longer. Now a faithful dis- 



86 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

ciple is expected to surrender one tenth of his crop ; and 
it must be said that even if a large part of the tithes 
does go to dignitaries and bishops, yet not only are 
these hard workinL>' men to whom the church oives no 

O D 

other pay, but the titlies support the new emigrants, 
the poor and sick, and pay the expenses of church an4 
temple building. All this seems to have been honestly 
intended and thoroughly carried out at first ; but since 
the President's death, and for some time before, the great 
increase of population, and increase in the number of 
municipal, state, and church cares, have interfered with 
it a good deal. 

I went to look at Brigham Young's grave. The 
Mormon graves upon these arid slopes are strangely 
neglected. Their condition indicates what every face 
I met repeated, — the low mental character and ab- 
sence of spirituality in the population. An effort 
seems to have been made here to enclose, in separate 
sections, ground that has been too carelessly kept. Far- 
thest from the road a square lot contains the body of 
Brigham Young. A neat iron rail elicloses the grave,, 
but no attempt has yet been made to erect a monument, 
or even inscribe his name above the spot. Just below, 
to my riglit, rose the chimney of the cottage where his 
first wife, the mother of John W. Young, still lives. As 
I knew something of tlie history of that woman, I 
looked with pathetic interest at the gently curling smoke 
which rose from it. She has never hesitated to say 
that with polygamy the iron entered her soul ; but her 
confidence in her husband was perfect, and she truly 
accepted it as the Lord's owni way of weaning '' Latter- 
day Saints" from the things of earth ! 

As I wished to see something of the w^omen, we went 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 87 

to the office of " The Woman's Exponent/' very well edi- 
ted by Mrs. Emmeline B. Wells, one of the wives of 
the Councillor D. H. Wells. This councillor is distin- 
guished among polyganiists as having had seven wives 
and, I think, thirty-six children, who have all lived har- 
moniously and prosperously together. Mrs. Emmeline 
had gone out of town on business, and left affairs in the 
hands of one of her " nieces," — that is, one of her hus- 
band's daughters by another wife. This was an intelligent 
young woman, with a graceful air, but a delicate, pallid 
look, and I should think a little under thirty. I was 
very glad to talk with her, because her family are always 
named as the principal supporters of polygamy. 

If the councillor's looks do not belie him, he is a sin- 
cere and unbendinGf fanatic, who still believes in the 
" Avenger of Blood." In his family he is kind and firm, 
and has that sort of shrewdness which has enabled him 
to choose as his wives women who could live peacefully 
together. 

Of the seven wives, two live happily with the mother 
of the young lady before me, the ibiir others constituting 
a separate household. When any questions were asked 
about their relations, her mother always replied that she 
had lived so long with these women that they seemed 
to her like her sisters. 

" And how do you feel toward all these brothers and 
sisters ? " I asked. "Of course I like the children of my 
own mother the best," she replied ; " but I like them all." 
She acknowledged that none of the young women were 
in favor of polygamy, and that they preferred to marry 
gentiles. " What w^ould 3^ur own father say to you if 
you were to do that ? " I asked. " He never interferes ; 
he expects us to please ourselves," she replied. " Two of 
my sisters have married gentiles." 



88 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

My English friends then spoke of the polyanclrous 
tribes in Thibet which they had just visited. The men 
are mountaineers ; few women are born among them, and 
these few have it all their own way 1 Mrs. B. had visited 
one woman who had sixteen husbands. When one of 
these returns from the chase, the man in possession 
leaves, and the order and time of this is probably ar- 
ranged beforehand. The women are liglit-hearted and 
gay; they do not care for their children at all, but these 
are much petted and caressed by the men, eacli one of 
whom seems to know and believe in his own. Miss 
Wells evidently forgot herself in listening, and when Mrs. 
B. paused, and I said, " That condition of things implies 
to me a very much deeper state of spiritual degrada- 
tion than polygamy," she turned eagerly to me saying, 
" I think so too," — not in the least aware of the ad- 
mission she made. She did not resent my implication ; 
nay, I am sure that she herself felt polygamy to be deg- 
radation, but not necessarily of so personal a nature as 
polyandry. 

After dinner Professor Newbury, whom I was most 
glad to find here, took us to Barfoot's Museum, — Bar- 
foot being a greater curiosity than any on his own 
shelves. He was an Enolishman from a manufacturino- 
district, and reminds me of the naturalists developed 
under most discouraging circumstances, and described 
by Mrs. Gaskell in " Mary Barton." 

Very crowded, very untidy, and very unscientific 
were his dusty little rooms.; but they were not devoid of 
interest. Besides the ordinary array of minerals, there 
was a strange apron embroic|^red in silver and gold by 
Queen Elizabeth of England, — one of tlie treasures 
Brigham Young had brought over ! There was a panel 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 89 

portrait of Calvin painted by Holbein, and close beside 
it the boat in which Kit Carson first tested the waters 
of Salt Lake ! 

Beautifnl ores of copper and salt, dead scorpions and 
tarantulas decoyed us to an inner room, wdiere a great 
live horned owl scolded at us. In the next case was a 
prairie dog, with his two attendant owls. I was much 
interesteLJ. when I was greeted by both the latter with 
the elaborate Turveydrop courtesy of which I had heard. 
Both bowed as soon as I approached, and not only bowed 
but half courtesied ; and although some persons assert 
that this is a timid attempt to see in broad day, the 
thing has never been explained : it may be only one 
of the queer mimetic occurrences constantly to be met 
in the animal world. Here too I saw for the first time 
a new product of the smelting furnace, containing a re- 
crystallization of pure iron and copper, with the deep 
blue glory of lapis lazuli ; here too the mineral wax, or 
candle grease, which I first saw at Green Eiver, was ex- 
hibited in masses weighing fifty pounds. 

Later I went in search of the persons attached to the 
Congregational Church and Academy, to wdioni I liad 
letters ; but with the exception of the Kev. Edward Ben- 
ner, they were all out of tov/n. With his pretty wife 
I went to call on several Mormon women ; and especially 
on a woman who was a teacher in the family of Brig- 
ham Young, who is an apostate, and w^ho witli her hus- 
band was obliged to hide from the " Avenger of Blood," 
in the days w^hen there w^ere no United States troops to 
protect apostates. 

This Salt Lake Academy is one of the out-lying mis- 
sions of the " Colorado College." It is unsectarian, and 
founded on the idea of the best New England Acade- 



90 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

mies. It has a four-years' course of study, and is intend- 
ed to prepare teachers for destitute communities. No 
attempt is made to bias the church connections of pu- 
pils, but a decided religious influence is exerted. I re- 
gard this and similar institutions at the West, where 
gratuitous instruction is afforded, as the most hopeful 
thing in Western life. I was much pleased, after talking 
over the whole Mormon problem with Mr. Benner, 
to hear him say that if the Mormons would renounce a 
few radical errors, he had no desire to force them to 
change the name of their church. 

After this I went with Mrs. Captain B., who is pre- 
paring to leave to-morrow, to buy stores at the shop of 
the Z. C. M. I., or Zions Co-operating Mercantile Institu- 
tion, — a really noble shop, fit for the largest Eastern 
city, and kept with beautiful cleanliness. It contained 
everything from spring-seat wagons to apricots, sugar- 
plums, and boot-laces. 

Mrs. B. says that Miss Bird is a sweet, capable, unpre- 
tending, middle-aged person, everywhere liked, and the 
very last to be suspected of the daring things slie has 
done. She is also acquainted with Dr. Garrett Anderson, 
and spoke with enthusiasm of her lady-like manners, 
pleasant house, and professional success. 

She said she never should forget her first view of 
Dickens, who came to dine with her sister-in-law with 
an artificial rose pinned into his coat. I think a good 
many Englislimen might do the same thing ; but Mrs. B. 
was educated on the Continent, and has well disciplined 
ideas. The first time I ever saw Dickens lie was in the 
street, wearing a green coat and a scarlet-velvet waist- 
coat, with a shining gold chain attached to his eye-glass ! 
I thought he must be color-blind, a subject to which my 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 91 

attention had been directed by my grandfather, who had 
a constant struggle with a friend who always insisted 
on buying scarlet cloth when he was sent for bottle- 
green, as the scarlet always came of finer quality 1 

Mrs. B. had met Sir Edward Lytton at Nice, with 
whiskers nicely curled, and wearing eye-glasses attached 
to his gold chain, as well as a huge vinaigrette. He 
was writing that lovely story, " What will he do with 
it ? " at the time, and used to come down from his room 
and coax her cousin's maid to stitch the slieets together 
for him ! She evidently thought it altogether wisest not 
to make the acquaintance of literary lions. 

Salt Lake City, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 1880. — While I was 
waiting for Mr. Benner this morning and looking over 
the magazines, a man from Illinois, interested in mines, 
came in. He was far more of a heathen than any Mor- 
mon. He brought a most beautiful specimen of Galena 
embedded in feldspar, which was colored bright green 
Avith copper. Mr. Benner showed me a letter from an 
apostate. This man had helped the mission to lease 
some rooms in which to start their school. This being 
suspected, the son of one of the bishops had set upon 
him, and beaten him badly. He had come to the mis- 
sion with his coat torn to pieces, and now w^rote to 
caution Mr. Benner as to the time and way of opening 
the scliool ; but promised to stand by him boldly when- 
ever it was done. Mr. Benner confirms what Miss Wells 
said yesterday of the growing disinclination of the 
young girls to marry Mormons. It causes much irri- 
tation. A pleasant young superintendent of a mine 
here was lately introduced to a Miss C, daughter of 
one of the wealthiest Mormons. He was invited to 



92 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

visit her, and kindly received by the family. This had 
happened several times, when he was set upon one night 
as he went in the dark to the depot, seized and held by 
several young Mormons, while two others beat him 
nearly to death. 

Mr. B. asserts of Young that he was selfish and crafty, 
that he loved power, and was both obscene and cruel. I 
do not in the least wish to defend Brigham Young, but 
I wish to account for him ; and no man ever won the 
influence and effected the results visible in Utah by 
such traits alone. Many proofs exist that he could be 
considerate and tender; and obscene words, or those 
counted such in his Tabernacle addresses, may have 
been chiefly very plain talk addressed to men of very 
low intelligence and base natures. It has been charged 
against him that he pointed out pregnant women in 
church, and adjured other women to emulate them ; 
but we must remember that these women had been long- 
trained to consider this condition a mark of God's spe- 
cial favor, and Brigham's emphatic course was not merely 
the result of state exigency, but, as he often declared, of 
a wholesome disgust of the practices in our own large 
cities. If a New England Doctor of Divinity found it 
necessary to preach three successive Sundays in Boston 
upon this subject, we need not reproach Brigham Young. 
The sort of talk complained of may have seemed very 
necessary to him when he found the agents of Madame 
Restell at work among his people, or when he wished to 
impress on them the sacredness of child-bearing. We 
must not pass judgment upon him as if he had been 
talking to educated people, or .even to the most ignorant 
of the people to be found in our country towns. A single 
glimpse of any congregation gathered in Salt Lake City 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 93 

reveals the source of his power. All his energy, all his 
main speaking, was required to penetrate the dense na- 
tlire of the people with whom he had to deal. So far 
as I could understand, the women honored him ; and I 
know one thing greatly to his credit in his dealing with 
4iis own household. A friend of my own travelling 
in Utah, a very accomplished physician, was sum- 
moned on arrival at the hotel by Brigham himself 
to attend on one of his wives, who was in great 
danger after the delivery of a child. A note which was 
waiting had been left some hours before, and my friend 
went to the Dove Cote in great anxiety lest the delay 
might have cost the woman her life. He had been 
struck by the clear statement of symptoms in Brigham 
Young's note. What was his amazement on arrival to 
find the President himself in attendance on the woman ; 
her hips had been raised, ice applied and stimulants 
given, very much as he himself would have ordered. 
When he afterward spoke to the President about this, 
the latter said that he had found it necessary to study 
medicine, as only very inferior physicians were willing 
to settle in Utah, and that their character was often 
such that he did not trust his women with them. He 
added, that partly to obviate this he had induced some 
of the brightest young Mormon w^omen to go to the 
Woman's College in Philadelphia to study medicine; 
and it happened that I was afterward present when two 
of these young women graduated creditably. 

There is no doubt, according to the testimony of both 
Wells and Taylor, that at least five hundred persons 
were once immolated who were about to recant. Brig- 
ham fully understood that the absolute authority of his 
church must be established in the beginning, even if it 



94: MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

were by a " reign of terror ; " and he must also have 
known that many of his converts would be dangerous 
citizens under any reign less absolute than his own. 
That out of this enforced control a far higher develop- 
ment has arisen than any one could expect is God's mercy. 
Our Illinois heathen here broke into the conversation 
to say, that, " to one who has seen the whole, it looks as 
if a nation of giants had been born of pigmies." 

We went next to the Tithing House, inside the but- 
tressed wall of which I have spoken. Here, within 
separate courts devoted to different articles, the faithful 
are supposed to devote one tenth of what they raise or 
receive to the support of the church. Loads of hay 
were driven into one yard. Some new spring-carriages 
stood under a shed. There was a long row of vegetable 
cellars opening by hatches under a sort of porch ; in this 
were rooms with counters which looked like the obscure 
shops in the suburbs of great cities, such as one might 
find at Haarlem or South Boston. Counters were set 
a little way within the doors. At each was a man with 
an account book, who wrote down what was received. 
I saw a whole side of beef delivered at one counter, 
while a woman laid down a dozen eggs on another. A 
poor widow brought her mite in the sliape of a can of 
milk ; and another, wearing a yoke such as the Chinese 
use to carry burdens, brought in two slices of liver ! 

It is openly said that the delicacies go to the authori- 
ties, while the coarse food goes to the workmen on the 
temple. If this be true, would it be different in any 
Christian land we know ? 

I cannot conceive anything lower than the faces I 
saw in these tithing yards. They belong to an order of 
persons who, recognizing the church as the author of all 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. * 95 

tlie good they have ever known, would not hesitate to 
commit any crime which it ordained. 

We went next to the Tabernacle, a photograph of 
which can be obtained in any large town. It is unlike 
any building on earth, unless it be the great skin-sheds 
or tents under which the Tartars sometimes aggregate. 
It looks like a large oval mushroom, and has an humble 
homelike air which invites the* poor worshipper. The 
walls are five feet thick. It is a great elliptical amphi- 
theatre within. The organ and apostles' seats are at the 
same end. Two large covered barrels in front of and 
below these were said to hold the sacramental water, 
brought from the highest hills. The Mormons claim 
that the organ is the second largest in the country, and 
was made and set up by themselves : I had always un- 
derstood that Hook's men went out to do it. 

It is curious that Brigliam Young should have devised 
anything like this building. The ovoid is two hundred 
and fifty feet long by one hundred and fifty broad. The 
height of the dome is sixty -two feet. At the time of our 
visit a screen of sage-brush had been erected across the 
entire end behind the organ, and wherever it was visible 
it was ornamented with sunflowers. The pungent odor 
of the sage was evident the moment we entered. The 
whole roof was decorated with long wreaths of cedar, 
hung with the most delicate exactness, and with a fit- 
ness which I should like to see imitated in higher quar- 
ters. From the front of the gallery hung baskets filled 
with cedar and simple forms of paper flowers. The 
people had just been celebrating the fiftieth anniversary 
of the opening of Mormon prophecy. 

The architecture is impressive, because so unpretend- 
ing and so vast. Twelve thousand persons have been 



93 * MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

seated under this brooding roof, and it is asserted to be 
a miraculous success as regards its acoustic properties. 
A pin dropped into the sexton's hat was distinctly heard 
to fall two hundred feet away, and a whisper at the desk 
was audible at the most extreme distances. Of course 
such a property gives an immense advantage to a preacher, 
for he may use successfully the same tones that he uses 
in conversation. It impresses the true Mormon believer 
with great awe, as he thinks this quality was granted in 
direct answer to prayer. 

We went from this strange place to the New Temple. 
As I passed down the aisle, Mr. Benner handed me a 
child's paper picked up from one of the seats, I read 
it through, and, witli the exception of expressions of 
formal allegiance to the Mormon Church, found it much 
freer from objection than most Christian papers. I 
copy the following words from it : — 

" Children, remember this : You cannot be Latter Day 
Saints, unless God is with you through ' His Holy 
Spirit ; ' you cannot maintain the Gospel, and love it, unless 
the spirit of that Gospel, the Holy Spirit, rests upon you ; 
you cannot dwell happily with Saints unless you love what 
they love. The spirit of Babylon will not dwell with the 
spirit of God. Children, you must know that Mormons re- 
ceive you as a gift from God, the very best thing he can give. 
Among the Gentiles thousands despise this gift. They do 
not regard children as a blessing ; they look upon them as 
an expensive, cumbersome burden, of which they must rid 
themselves in order to live in luxury. This is a wicked 
state of things which we hope you will never know any- 
thing about." 

The value of the teaching in the first clause depends 
upon the idea entertained of God. Fortunately this 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. ' 97 

church can no longer control that. Their body is too 
large ; and railways, telephones, and phonograplis have 
already brought them into too close contact with the 
nineteenth century. As soon as they get money, the 
people send their children away to the best schools, — of 
course they are not Mormon schools ; returning, they 
bring with them the best books. In many respects 
Brigham Young " builded better than he knew." It is a 
pleasure to see how thoroughly he made his people work ; 
and that they yielded to his urgency shows the best 
side of the old feudal system in force here. Brigham 
was " Lord of the Keep." 

The marvellous structure called the 'New Temple 
was begun twenty-seven years ago ; it lias already 
cost three millions. It is not tlie policy of the church 
to finish it. The new converts who arrive without 
any settled plan are put to this work. Beside their 
wages in rations or money, which are always low, 
they are taught to expect especial spiritual gifts and 
"a robe of glory" in return for their labor. Very 
few are employed at once. It is astonishing how 
skilful they soon become, religious enthusiasm stimulat- 
ing whatever intelligence they possess. This building 
will be devoted to the sacraments and ceremonies of 
their faith. It is built of the finest white gneiss from 
the Cotton-wood Canon. It is one hundred and eighty- 
six feet long by ninety-nine broad, within. The walls 
are eight feet thick, and the towers are to be two liun- 
dred and twenty-five feet high. Each polished step of 
the stairway is said to cost one thousand dollars before 
it is laid in its place. Persons are not generally allowed 
to enter it, but I carried a talisman which availed. The 
crypt beneath it resembles that under the capitol at 

7 



98 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

Washington ; the columns are equally short and thick. 
When I had climbed to the battlements a superb view 
was spread out before me. As I gazed over the fruit- 
ful plain and caught the silver glimmer of the lake be- 
neath the snow-capped mountains, and remembered the 
humble workmen patiently waiting for "Endowment 
Eobes," which are to be theirs if they live until this 
New Temple is finished, my eyes filled with tears ! In 
what painful ways must God educate these children ! 
Why need we despise them as we do ? It is so easy to 
be deceived, and to deceive ourselves ! 

From hence we went to the grave of Heber Kimball. 
He was a strong but thoroughly crafty and base man, 
whose only merit seems to have been liis loyalty to his 
leader; and this loyalty had power to bring a shower of 
tears to Brigham Young's eyes when Heber died. About 
his stately monument the obscure graves of his many 
wives are grouped in a way whicli is highly significant 
of the Mormon idea. Close to them I picked the brilliant 
orange blossom of a mallow which was new to me. A 
drearier spot never was seen. The lovely flower was 
hardly visible before I gathered it, and seemed to me 
emblematic of the higher life which is yet to be born of 
this bewildered church. As we went up to it we passed 
a little cottage, where an aged woman was sprinkling a 
few dusty plants with a hose. " It is hard work to keep 
them alive," I said with sympathy, for I wanted to speak 
to her. •' It is, indeed," she answered; "but we remember 
when we had no water," — and her tone was one of deep- 
felt gratitude. This was one of the widows not yet 
gathered into the shade of Heber's obelisk. 

AVe now went to the office of the Board of Emigra- 
tion. I really desired to inquire into the statistics of 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 99 

this Board, but far more did I desire an excuse for an 
interview with some Mormon officer to whom I could 
speak about the insanUary condition of the town, and 
the hirge death-rate of the little children. Mr. Ander- 
son, the secretary, has a pleasant face, but is himself 
evidently overworked ; he has lately had repeated at- 
tacks of fallino- sickness. He took us into an inner 
office and left us for a few moments. We employed the 
time in looking at the portraits with which the walls 
are hung. Taylor was a fine, resolute-looking man, of a 
more cordial make than Young himself. Wells's face is 
that of a narrow fanatic. How came all those sensible, 
kind-hearted women to love him ? It is he who still 
believes in the " atoning and avenging by blood," with 
which of late the United States bayonet has sternly in- 
terfered. His face is almost the exact counterpart of that 
of an eminent Free-Eeligionist, who would feel basely 
insulted by the suggestion. I felt perfectly familiar with 
every line of his thin lips. While we sat talking with the 
secretary, one of his subordinates took occasion to come 
back and forth through the room several times, on some 
pretence. He gazed at us with scowling suspicion. 
Every time he went out he left the door open, and as 
often the secretary rose and shut it with silent care. 

The Board still receives about 2,800 emigrants be- 
tween April and October of every year. It neither 
seeks nor assists American converts. These emigrants 
are chiefly AVelsh, Cornish, or Scandinavian. The latter 
are Jutlanders or Finlanders, and some come from ob- 
scure mountain tow^ns in Norway. To the question 
whether these men improved their physical condition by 
coming, the secretary answered candidly that the greater 
number undoubtedly did. Then followed numerous an- 



100 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

ecdotes, vouched for by my gentile companions, show- 
ing that the converts themselves hardly knew how gre^at 
the gain was until they tried to resume the old life. A 
woman from Wales came over with her Imsband, under 
a distinct promise that she should return if she were 
not contented, — a promise Young usually found it 
safe to make. The man's health failed, and the wife 
remained with him thirteen years. During the last 
years of his life a second wife was " sealed to him," 
chiefly that his first wife might be able to" command 
proper assistance in nursing him. As soon as possible 
after the man's death means were provided to restore 
the first wife to her early home, which still smiled on 
her in her dreams. The second wife, as a true Mor- 
man, of course inherited all the effects. 

Not long after, the second wife married again ; and 
in a few months the first appeared, a suppliant at her 
door. She had not known how to endure the hardships 
of the Welsh life she had sighed after. The newly 
married pair built her a little cot in one corner of their 
garden, where she still lives. 

I asked Mr. Anderson how the new-comers were dis- 
posed of, and whether paupers existed. He said that 
most of the emigrants were bound to special localities, 
where they had friends. If without money to buy a 
home, they were immediately provided with work. If 
this were not possible in Salt Lake City, they were scat- 
tered the day after their arrival. Those wholly without 
means were set about Government work and supported 
by the tithes. There are no paupers. All who are 
really poor are secretly assisted by the bishops. 

When I brought forward my main business, Mr. An- 
derson was much interested. He said with a sort of 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 101 

despair, " We are so ignorant in all these matters ! " 
He fully admitted the truth of what I thought I had 
seen. I told him it was useless for me to try to rouse a 
large community like that at Denver, in any time a trav- 
eller had at command ; nor would I speak to him now if 
the needful changes required any great outlay of money. 
My list of evils consisted of, — 

1. Foul air. 

2. Imperfect drainage. 

3. Stagnant water on the outskirts. 

4. Accumulations of filth. 

5. The introduction of the Chinese into closely built 
squares. 

In a town like Salt Lake City there were simple 
domestic remedies for most of these evils, and it 
was certainly competent to the church to employ 
new-comers in removing filth and altering drainage, 
while the municipal authorities could oblige the Chi- 
nese to live according to the laws of civilized human 
beings. Mr. Anderson listened with great interest, 
and explained the position of his own bedrooms that 
I might show him how to ventilate them without di- 
rect draught. He then begged me to remain to a 
meeting of the City Council to be held the next night, 
that I might repeat wdiat I had said to the men in power ; 
but this I could not promise to do. 

He then desired me to go over the " Amelia Palace " 
with him ; for he said Brigham Young had meant to 
make that a perfect building, and he would like to see 
if I would object to its water supply as I did to that 
of my hotel. 

This building, containing one hundred and thirteen 
rooms, looks like a modern sea-side villa. It is a bur- 



102 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

den to the church which owns it, and Brigham himself 
called it the •' President's Folly." President Taylor has 
been asked to live in it, but refuses. The secretary 
thought it would have to be opened as a hotel. " Was 
it not intended for Brigham's favorite wife ? " I asked, 
and the secretary laughed. " No," said he ; " President 
Young was not much in the habit of talkiug about 
liis plans, and the people thought what they pleased. 
The true name of the buildino- is the ' The Req'ardo 
House.' After the trouble at Nauvoo, Colonel Kane, 
of Philadelphia, stood Brigham Young's friend with 
the United States. Some years afterward he came 
on to visit Salt Lake City. There was no good hotel, 
nor was there in the whole town a house in which 
the President was willing to receive him. He was 
much mortified, and at once laid the plan of ihih build- 
ing, in wdiich he hoped to entertain strangers." 

I went over tliis " Palace " with great interest, giving, 
as I was asked to do, especial attention to the plumb- 
ing. For this I was the better fitted that I had recently 
examined the plumbing of several large State institu- 
tions in Central New York. I wish I could ever expect 
to see another house as carefully built as this Regardo. 
The hall and stairway were grained and painted on the 
wall in a fashion of Brigham's own, which he had found 
so serviceable that he wished to perpetuate it. The ceil- 
ings were lofty, and the whole aspect grave. 

All the walnut for the doors and panels was dried by 
a fire which was kept burning and watched, night and 
day, for months ; and up to this time it has stood the 
test, — not a crack has appeared, not a joint has gaped. 
There is a rounded moulding between every floor and 
the surbase above, w^hich, besides covering any possible 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 103 

shrinkage, would prevent furniture from touching the 
wall The cornices and pillars, with their capitals, in 
the elegant reception-rooms are toned in tender colors 
and touched in gilt. All the hinges, pulleys, and locks 
show evidence of superior care. I never saw window 
casings so exquisitely fitted anywhere, except at Mount 
Vernon. The plumbing was done under Brigham's own 
eye, and every pipe well trapped, in the best fashion of 
four years ago. After all, the fashion is of less import- 
ance than the thoroughness of the work. The simplest 
device, whicli leaves least room for error or ignorant 
interference, will always be the best. It would be im- 
possible to use the house for a private family ; it would 
require too many servants, and it is evident Brigham in- 
tended it for a hotel I left it with an increased respect 
for his general ability. It is heated by steam, and the 
bath-rooms and kitchen rano-es are the finest that could 

o 

be obtained. It was built by Mormons ; and if these 
men instruct others in their ways, they will be of great 
service to the industry of the Western country. When 
we came out, Mr. Anderson said again : " We are very 
ignorant of sanitary science. I wish you could stay 
and tell us more about it. " 

I wished very much to see Orson Pratt, who is 
now the church historian ; so we went on to his office, 
where we found two elderly men and a pleasant 
young girl copying old records. Mr. Pratt was out 
of town. Suspicious looks were turned upon us at first, 
but they soon cleared away before my evident interest. 
They showed us the Book of Mormon translated into 
nine languages, — English, Welsh, French, German, 
Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Italian, and, most mar- 
vellous of all, into Hindostanee ! This last translation 



104 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

was made by a Scandinavian resident in Hindostan, a Dr. 
Meik. The character of his immigrants led Brigham 
Young to consider the difficulties of spelling the English 
language, and he not only devised a new phonetic aljjha- 
bet, but printed the Book of Mormon in it. Of course it 
did no good, and is so much dead matter on their shelves. 
With tliat frank acknowledgment a copy was presented 
to each of us. 

As I ran over the shelves, I was astonished to 
take down a bound but manuscript volume, contain- 
ing the personal diary or autobiography of Brigham 
Young ! I opened it eagerly. Surely this man's life is 
as well worthy of study as that of Napoleon Bonaparte ! 
The first entry examined comprised instructions to his 
agents in foreign countries. It was written in the time 
of the Crimean war, and the agents in Constantinople 
were told intelligently how to provide for, take care of, 
and distribute the missionaries which Brigham sent out. 
In Calcutta the agent was instructed to send his mission- 
aries up country, before a certain season of the year, to 
avoid all risk of fever. I wish some Christian powers I 
know were as considerate ! 

The last entry I read was characteristic. " I have been 
talking with certain strangers, " it ran, " concerning in- 
spiration. Inspiration is Common Sense ! " This last 
clause was dashed off in large black letters and under- 
scored. This remark may be registered among the rarest ; 
and as it evidently expressed his private convictions we 
can easily see how he came to look on himself as 
inspired. It was a claim such people may be easily 
led to make. 

I beard to-day of Mrs. C, for many years an apostate, 
who has only just left Salt Lake. She was afraid to do 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 105 

it until the United States were ready to protect her. 
There is no doubt in my own mind that the disintegra- 
tion of the Mormon body politic has begun. The disinte- 
o-ratinsj forces are five : — 

1. The tithing system, 

2. The greed of certain officials. 

3. Underpaid official work. 

4. Educational advantages. 

5. Polygamy. 

1 . The Scandinavians will not yield to the demand for 
tithes, and under tlie eye of the United States the church 
cannot enforce payment by violence. The Northman 
counts every dollar his own, and keeps a tight grip on it. 

2. Of those who have innocently and willingly paid 
tithes, many are now aroused every year by seeing that 
the priests and not the community are benefited by the 
sacrifice. This is not the vaunted idea at the bottom of 
an ideal commonwealth. 

3. The officers employed by the church are not paid 
as well as they should be in money. This leads to dis- 
satisfaction, to efforts to earn in some outside fashion, 
which result in overwork and alienation, as well as the 
failure of health in the most valuable men. It leads to 
"prospecting" and gambling in stocks, which Young would 
not permit. 

4. The generation born upon the soil feel the need of 
education, and are quick to see the difference between 
themselves and other American citizens. They are de- 
termined to learn, and the education of their children 
nurtures independence of thought, which soon begets 
resistance to church claims. Mormons send their child- 
ren to the best schools they can reach, no matter who 
keeps them. 



106 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

5. One of the first results of outside education is prac- 
tical. It is the refusal of the young women to marry 
polygamists. They encourage attentions outside their 
own church in the hope of escape, and many now marry 
gentiles.. It is perfectly well understood among them- 
selves that the overthrow of polygamy is only a ques- 
tion of a few years. The thirst for wealth, which the 
railroad and contact with modern society at school 
and college has imparted, is a powerful influence in 
this direction. 

Perhaps no one in the United States thought the 
presence of the Mormon church on its soil a greater 
disgrace than I did before I went to Utah. I always 
felt keenly about it, and thought that the United States 
ought to interfere with its polygamous habit. But act- 
ual contact with the evil has changed my position in 
many w^ays. Before I reached Salt Lake, my interest in 
behalf of the people was strongly roused by wliat I had 
heard said against them. The military, the miners, the 
rapacious and greedy of every sort covet their fruitful 
soil and charming valley, as they do the hunting 
grounds of the Indians. Unconsciously, the religious 
and moral part of the community are playing into the 
hands of a parcel of swindlers. If the President could 
have gone among them as I did, or if any of our lead- 
ing statesmen would take the trouble to do it, they 
would discover the truth. So long as the Chinese 
are permitted to remain in California a separate com- 
munity, worshipping idols, practising polygamy, putting 
diseased infants to death, and burying their sick and 
dying in unwholesome fetid dens in the bowels of the 
earth, so lonir the Mormon church has a ritrhtto demand 
supremacy in its own jurisdiction. 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 107 

As to polygamy, its strongliold is in the emigrants 
of low character who come over afresh every year. It 
seems to me that the United States may interfere so far 
as to forbid polygamous marriage to future immigrants ; 
to forbid United States offices to men who are polyga- 
mists ; and to refuse to receive as a territorial representa- 
tive any man who practises it. If a man is intelligent 
enough to understand in a wide sense the business in- 
terests of his country, he can be made to see that polyg- 
amy does not mean the greatest happiness to the great- 
est number. Even this I would not have the United 
States do, until it is prepared to take the same steps with 
regard to the Chinese. But if the Government were to 
take any more active ground, — if it were to deprive 
women married for years of position and support ; if it 
were to declare scores of children illegitimate, — then it 
would have, and it would deserve to have, all Utah in 
arms against it. Gentle, gradual measures the j^eople 
are prepared for. Their young men and women show 
their consciousness of the evil by refraining from any 
admission that they are Mormons when they are away 
from home, and by ceasing to defend the institution. 
Let the whole past stand, interfere solely to protect the 
future, and polygamy will die a natural death, strangled 
by the nineteenth century, — a death which may seem 
violent, but is most natural. The moment we see that 
these people never were American citizens, that they 
were far more degraded than any class we know, and 
that the Mormon church even with this drawback has 
really led them on and up, and made decent citizens out 
of turbulent animals, the whole question changes its 
aspect, and the predicament becomes endurable. I 
think one such missionary as those which Colorado Col- 



108 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

leo^e sustains here of more avail than all the acts of 
Congress or battalions of soldiers. 

I made an attem2:)t to see the hot springs, but the 
heavy showers whicli have followed me all the way pre- 
vented, and it was raining when I went to take the cars 
for Ogden. Until I came here I did not know that 
there are two bathing stations on Salt Lake, within 
an hour's railway ride of the city, and that trains run 
out to these, morning and evening. Among the 
Mormons, going to bathe seems to be a sort of church 
duty; and I have no doubt that Brigham Young used 
all his influence to strengthen the feeling for sani- 
tary reasons. I had been much disappointed not to 
avail myself of one of these trains, and now fortune 
favored me. A large party had come out from Ogden 
to bathe, and our train, running for some distance in 
sight of the lake, backed down to it to take this party 
home. I was much surprised to see how little evidence 
the shores gave of the rapid evaporation, and how beau- 
tiful are the mountains which rise from its bosom. If it 
had an outlet, of course Salt Lake would be as fresh as 
the mountain rills which feed it. 

I am in love with the whole Wasatch rans^e. Professor 
Newbury wished me to stay longer and go down the val- 
ley to Juab. He says I should see the finest mountain 
scenery in the world, the Swiss Alps being nothing to it. 
When I return it will be too late ; after the snow falls it 
would not be a safe journey. 

There was a torrent of rain fallino" when I reached Oq- 
den. I had quite a long distance to go, with three pieces of 
hand baggage. I could not persuade a porter to touch 
them, unless I would leave them exposed on the platform 
at his discretion. I hired a boy to lift two, and then in- 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 109 

sisted on the shelter of a smoking car for myself and my 
baggage, until a gentleman from Brooklyn procured my 
berth ticket. The three colored porters could not have 
been more disobliging if they had been three fiends. So 
absurd are the regulations, that the gentleman in ques- 
tion was compelled to go back and forth four times 
in the pelting storm before he could get my ticket. 
These regulations are nowhere posted. 

En route from Ogdcn to Bene, Aug. 18, 1880. — I have 
passed my last night in the cars. I did not find the bed 
on my silver-palace car as good as that on the Union 
Pacific. No one should travel this road without a large 
air-pillow. I was up an hour before the porter would 
relinquish that use of the dressing-room which the 
regulations forbid, but which I have so far found a 
constant thing. Last evening we ran a long w^ay by 
the side of Salt Lake ; it gleamed like silver in the 
moonlio'ht which succeeded the storm. When I beo-an 
to look out this morning we were running into Elko, 
which is full of hot springs, out of which it expects 
to make a fortune. But any spot in this desert may 
do the same, for no space twenty miles square can 
be found which is not full of springs supposed to 
be medicinal. Next we ran through the Five Mile 
Canon, — chiefly remarkable for the odd, earthy fig- 
ures into which it is worn. It looks not in the least 
like rock, but like an immense fortification of adobe 
crumbled by time. At Twelve Mile Canon, a bril- 
liant yellow lichen began to cover the cliffs. It is 
the first growth I have seen on the rocks, and colors 
the landscape in a most picturesque way. "Palis- 
ades " is half-way down this last canon, and its perpen- 



110 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

dicular walls — a good deal like the Palisades on the 
Hudson to the eye — rise on both sides to the lieigLt 
of eight hundred feet, making a very narrow gorge, 
in which nestles a population of about two hundred 
souls. 

A curious scene met my eye as the train trundled in. 
A group of erect, dark-skinned men in bright blankets 
were gesticulating violently around a water-trough. 
The centre of interest was made by two camels busily 
engaged in filling their private water bottles. The yel- 
low soil made me rub my eyes, and wonder if I were 
really in Arabia Petraea. A little farther on, the cars 
of a travelling circus dissipated the illusion but did not 
disturb the pretty picture. About the platform crowded 
a number of Indian women, ready to show their fat 
little pappooses in their standing cribs for " two bits 
apiece ! " 

We dined at Humboldt, where the mountains began 
to close around us, and where the perseverance of a 
woman has made an oasis in the desert. The house 
stands in the midst of vast burning plains, a rocky 
bluff not far off only intensifying the arid glare. But 
it also stands on a lawn green as emerald, dotted with 
fruit-trees and stretching out into hay-fields which are 
worth more than a mine. A fountain sparkles in the 
centre of the lawn ; a pond full of trout Hashes out of 
the blue grass. Three hundred bushels of potatoes 
have been taken from an acre of this farm. Eighteen 
tons of alfalfa have been garnered at once from the 
lot behind the house, and it is cut from five to seven 
times a year ! 

The proprietor has lived here many years. For about 
three months in the summer his family come to him 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. Ill 

from San Francisco. At last his wife insisted that if 
this were to be his home, it should be made a pleasant 
one. Her husband had plenty of money, but he did not 
wish to spend it in the mountains. Very likely it 
would have gone in solitaire ear-rings for each of the 
oirls in San Francisco. She insisted, — and this little 
paradise grew up, as pleasant as it is profitable, and 
famous all along the road. For half a century to come, 
every traveller will bless her woman's wit. 

Now we are in the desert in earnest. The black sand 
streams down the bare hills, and streaks the white plains. 
Volcanic signs appear everywhere. Hot springs are on 
one side ; on the other, saline deposits glitter on the 
surface. On the horizon the brown mountains look as 
if they were quilted down or caught in, as mattresses 
are. A great many low-looking Chinamen come round 
and chatter in a tongue whose flat, round sounds are so 
little broken by consonants that one hardly feels as if 
it were articulate speech. Then we come to the Truckee 
River, named for an old Indian follower of General 
Fremont. We begin to perceive that there are three 
kinds of sao-e. The tall brush furnishes fuel for the 
campers and the engines at the mills. Cattle grow fat 
on the white sage, which is almost pure alkali ; and the 
sheep are so fond of that which grows close to the plain 
that the ranchmen call it "clover." It was nine at 
night when we reached Eeno. Circulars had been dis- 
tributed through the cars, saying that the hotel had just 
started, and that the proprietor would be glad of any 
suggestions which would enable him to meet the public 
demand. I found a clean supper-table and good food, 
if I except the tea and coffee. The bed-chamber was 
the cleanest I have seen since I left home. 



112 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

Beno to San Francisco, Aug. 19, 1880. — When I paid 
my bill this morning, I said to the landlord, in pursu- 
ance of the purpose of his circular, that I was an invalid, 
and that I should not have dared to sleep here if I 
had known that I should have found no bell in my 
room. " If you expect to entertain women and chil- 
dren," I said, " you ought to put bells into a few of your 
rooms." The man looked up at me steadily for a mo- 
ment, and then said rudely, "I'm running this hotel!" 
" Yes," I replied, " but I understood that you wished to 
run it in the interest of the passengers." Another look 
and the words, " We runs this place to suit ourselves ! " 

I stayed over night at Eeno to get a good view of the 
Sierras, and by taking the morning Express from Vir- 
ginia City saved at least two hours of time. I wish 
some one had been honest enough to tell me that no 
good view could be had unless I was on horseback. 
Before we got to Keno we ran for miles between snow 
fences erected to break the force of the storms on the 
plains. But here we begin to run through tunnels and 
snow-sheds, some of which have sharp-pointed roofs 
like a Swiss chalet; while others, clinging to the side of 
the rocks, are in truth sheds only, whose pitch is on 
occasion only a continuance of the mountain slide down 
which the avalanche thunders. 

We began our day's journey by sitting for three 
hours on the steps of the rear platform, watching 
the rapids of the Truckee Eiver and scenery exceed- 
ingly like the canon of Still Piiver in West Vir- 
ginia. It was like the White Mountain valleys and 
intervals also, but abounded in flowers of many colors 
and kinds, some of which grow in New England. 
The rock is distinctly basaltic. Here begin our forty 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 113 

miles of dreary sheds. " Observation gaps " are cut out 
here and there, which tantalize us with glimpses of 
beauty that we may not see. Tliere is very little snow 
on any of the mountains this year, so that element of 
landscape effect is lost. Purple pyramids and jagged 
cliffs break the horizon when we pause to look back. 
The road-bed is cut through granite. Not all our dan- 
gers are surmounted when w^e are well defended from 
the avalanche : at short intervals the sides and roof 
of the snow-sheds are of corrugated iron to defend the 
road from forest fires, which are quite as fatal. We get 
glimpses of Donner Lake, two thousand feet below us. 
A snowy range of mountains shuts it in on one side ; 
green fields and fir trees shadow it. Yesterday near 
AVhite Plains we passed the perfectly dry bed of what 
\\'as last year a lake thirty-five miles long by sixteen 
^vide ! The water has been diverted for irrigation. The 
sight of its deserted basin increased the scepticism 
which I always feel when immense periods are as- 
signed by scientists to account for comparatively trivial 
changes.^ I have seen Table Eock break away in one 
year to an extent accorded to a century. 

At the summit, two hundred and forty-four miles from 
San Francisco, we are surrounded by peaks which rise ten 
thousand feet ; but their aspect is not dreary, as it was at 
Leadville. There are a great many fir trees ; and the 
houses of immigrants and miners, grow^n brown with 
years, are hung with vines, morning glories, and blos- 
soming honeysuckles, which give them a pretty home- 
like air. There were many of these in Blue Canon. 

1 "The Past in the Present," by Dr. Arthur Mitchell, shows that 
this scepticism is legitimate in archaeological as weU as ethnological 
matters. 



114 MY FIEST HOLIDAY. 

This is the limit of the winter snow, and here the road 
falls rapidly one hundred and sixteen feet to the mile. 

Dutch Flat, a German mining town, about two 
hundred miles from San Francisco, has a tidy, quiet, 
business-like look, in great contrast to the slovenly 
Colorado towns. It is older than most minino- towns, 
having been settled in 1851. The gold mines are now 
worked. in the hydraulic fashion, by water-power which 
the cutting of the railway diverted. 

Cape Horn is the name of a curve made by the railway 
two thousand feet above the river, where the first foothold 
was obtained by men let down by ropes from tlie cliffs 
above. It is not very impressive to one fresh from the 
greater wonders of the Colorado roads. The red soil begins 
to remind me of the clay between Baltimore and Washing- 
ton. A pretty young bride from Salt Lake City helped to 
make the day endurable. It is the only thoroughly un- 
comfortable day I have had since I started. The ther- 
mometer has been above 100. The tops of the seats 
scorch, and our clothes feel hot to us as we move in 
them. Here the live oaks begin to be hung with moss, 
as in Beaufort, South Carolina. 

There is fever and ague in Sacramento. It is an attrac- 
tive-looking town as we approach it, with all its avenues 
well shaded. Here we have been much annoyed by the 
train regulations. There is no sleeping car. Those of us 
who do not wish to go out to dine must remain in the hot 
car, which is locked tight at both ends, the closed doors 
shutting off the only possible air. No refreshments were 
brought into the car ; and in the midst of this hot noon, 
Mdth both doors locked so that we could not go out on 
the platform, the Irishman in charge proceeded to sweep 
the woollen carpet ! 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 115 

We have had an odd passenger in this car. He was 
brought in by the porter of the Silver, Palace at Ogden, 
very much excited by the double annoyance of heavy 
rain and delay in getting his berth. He had a com- 
panion, and the first night he talked in a loud tone, which 
kept' everybody awake, about the wickedness of the Pil- 
grim fathers, who, coming across the Atlantic to escape 
persecution, persecuted the Quakers in turn, whipping 
them at the "cart's tail," and so forth. In vain a mild 
man in the next berth represented that this was a com- 
mon form of punishment everywhere at the time. He 
continued to rave, reviling Plymouth for the guilt of 
Massachusetts Bay, till we were all weary. This morn- 
ing, as we dropped down the valley of the Truckee, we 
were driven out upon the platform by the violence of 
the man, who raved still further about the early days of 
San Francisco. He asserted that he was one of those 
employed by the old Vigilance Committee, and held him- 
self ready to shoot any man who asked him forty dollars 
a barrel for flour when his children were hungry ! He 
insisted that men had no more ridit to the soil under 

o 

their feet than to the sea over which their vessels sailed ! 
He would murder anybody who claimed the soil over his 
mine 1 This man had been a miner at first, but was evi- 
dently now a property-owner. His lips had the same 
thin cut that I remarked in a Mormon who believed in 
the " atonement of blood." 

When the people came out from dinner, we began to 
run down from Sacramento to the sea. I had been much 
astonished at the short time it took to pass through the 
Sierras, and I was entirely unprepared for the breath of 
sea air that now played about my temples, for the tender 
green meadows, the market-gardens, the salt marshes, and 



116 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

the impressive forms of the mighty Coast Eange amid 
which we glided down to the shore, Wlien we crossed 
the river at Benicia, it was delightful to drink in the 
salt air, and I was still bewildered by the delicious ver- 
dure of the Mormon ranches through which we de- 
scended. At Oakland my first sight was of my daugh- 
ter, with her hands full of flowers. The Golden Gate 
gleamed ruddy through a tender haze. I got an indefi- 
nite impression of a superb western sky, seen through 
the cliffs which wall it in. 

If I had known that this was the only glimpse of its 
beauty which I should ever have, I should have looked 
more carefully. "A fog closed over it," I wrote that 
night. Wliat was there that the fog did not close over 
in the next two months ? 

San Francisco, Aug. 20, 1880. — Nettie took me out over 
the hills in one of the cable cars, a method of ascendiuGf 
the sliarp bluffs which our horses refused to ascend last 
night. The wind was fresh. There was sometliing mar- 
vellously bleak in the aspect of the tliickly crowded gray 
houses and warehouses packed together on the hills, 
with neither lawns nor trees visible, — the trees being 
exactly the color of the houses, they are so laden with 
dust. The houses are mostly of wood, with " balloon 
frames," which are said to stand the earthquakes best. 
Many of the warehouses are of stone. I was struck by 
the lovely views of the ocean which opened at every 
cross-street. When I came into my daughter's parlor 
last night, I sat down in a bay window which com- 
manded a view of the liarbor, over which the starliolit 
fell, and which was lighted beside by the thousand 
lamps of the city and those attached to the vessels in 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 117 

the harbor. It was a scene of transcendent beauty. 
Never shall I forget it. The islands of Alcatraz and 
Yerba Buena rose from the silver surface of the water, 
where shifting lights and deepest shadows hover. It 
was a scene from fairyland. 

My rooms are bright with lovely flowers, sent by my 
friend Mrs. D. before I came. 

Aug. 22. — A great many houses here look dreary 
without and charming within. I think I can never have 
talked over San Francisco with any one who has been 
here, for the whole appearance of the town is a surprise 
to me. Its three hills rise bare and sharp, at an angle 
which horses, unless especially trained, absolutely refuse 
to undertake. I took a hack on my arrival to avoid 
added weariness, but the last two blocks I had to climb, 
wliile the hackman trudged heavily behind with my 
bags. To meet this difficulty the " cable tramway," which 
has attracted a great deal of attention abroad, was in- 
vented. A large steel cable is sunk in a trench mid- 
way between tlie rails. This cable turns round drums 
at each end of the road. The conductor holds a lever, 
at the end of which is a grip or clamp which seizes 
this cable. By the use of a break which relaxes this 
" grip," it is possible to stop at the intersecting streets. 
The cable is moved by a steam-engine at one end of 
the line. This system is about to be tried in Cliicago, 
where they do not need it. It could easily be applied 
to such cities as Gibraltar and La Valette. 

From Mrs. Davis's room in one corner of the Palace 
Hotel you see the whole city rise picturesquely from 
the water, and it looks more like a fortified rock in the 
Mediterranean Sea than anything else I can think of. 



118 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

To-day I went to a pleasant home where Miss Cleve- 
land and two other teachers from New England live to- 
gether. Its back window gave a charming glimpse of 
flowers and vines. I also tried to do some simple shop- 
ping, but the prices of goods were enormous, and tlieir 
quality poor; so I hesitated. I was much struck by 
the depressed air of the tradesmen. At the East trade 
has revived, and there is general prosperity. Here the 
times are " bad." It is said that the commercial tone of 
San Francisco has never been sound, nor its financial 
policy liberal ; and this has influenced the tone and pol- 
icy of the whole State. All the towns have been divi- 
ded into rings, monopolizing and crushing as seemed to 
suit the leaders. In some senses San Francisco is still 
little else than an old mining port, in which the igno- 
rant, unscrupulous, lawless class opposed to all decency 
and order still have their way. The rough element in 
a mining community is something which neither Boston 
nor New York knows anything about. 

Gambling in mines and stocks, and all. operations of 
uncertain tendency, affect the character of the banks, 
and prevent the people at large from realizing that the 
whole country is rousing from a sleep full of bad dreams. 
San Francisco is said to have lost a large section of its 
population ; and it must lose more, because the decay of 
some of the older enterprises leaves a large population 
unemployed. 

August 27. — Already several lunches have been of- 
fered me ; and at a lunch in one of the most elegant 
houses here eight entrees appeared. First, the strongest 
and best of beef tea, sipped from elegant Haviland cups. 
Then melons, cool but neither sweet nor rich as I have 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 119 

supposed I should find them here. Third, fried oysters 
with coleslaw, followed by chicken with green peas and 
cauliflower. This was succeeded by tomato and lettuce, 
served with a delicious mayonnaise. Cotfee and cake, 
ice-cream, and finally conserves of the most delicious 
crystallized fruits, and sherry. All the concomitants of a 
good dinner, except the power of choosing, and linger- 
ing over what is chosen, until hunger is satisfied. I 
always go home hungry from a table where the waiter 
brings round a single dish at a time. 

At these lunches, of course, I have seen only ladies, 
and they have talked in a way which can be found in 
all cities, but which in Boston or Washington would 
not be used by ladies with whom I should be thrown. 
Of course there are exceptions to this, but I speak of 
the general impression received. A New England 
woman said to me the day after I arrived, that she 
had never lived anywhere where it seemed to her the 
women were so intelligent, and took such pains to cul- 
tivate themselves, as in California. She lived in San 
Jose ; and as I thought it hardly likely that this town 
would be very superior, I took occasion later to inquire 
where she had lived previous to her marriage. I found 
it was one of the small interior towns in Maine. "When 
an opinion is very positively pronounced, it is well to 
find out how wide an experience goes to its make-up. 

To-day I went the rounds of the Chinese stores, in 
search of a few articles I wanted. I do not know how 
to deal with the almond-eyed Celestials, and soon gave 
it up. They are very indifferent ; they do not urge one 
to buy, nor do they ever lower their prices. 

On Sunday I had some shrimp salad served in a mould. 
It looked exactly like the marble the Italians call "ver- 



120 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

micelli/' but tasted very pleasantly. To-day I ate an olla- 
podrida, made of crabs and vegetables, well seasoned with 
red pepper and garlic. This was delicious, and was fol- 
lowed by a dessert of fresh figs, skinned and cut up in 
sugar and cream. I think the sugar and cream consti- 
tuted the whole attraction. The figs themselves have no 
decided flavor until they begin to dry upon the trees. 

After lunch we went to the Mechanics' Fair in the Mis- 
sion Street building. As this is the season of the trade 
winds, the ornamental trees here are kept as tight- 
rigged as a. ship in a storm. I saw several trimmed 
cypresses from fifteen to twenty feet high, with all their 
young limbs braced tightly to their trunks. On the low^er 
floor of the Mission Street buildin;^ we had the usual ex- 
liibition of manufactures and inventions. The prettiest 
thing was tlie garden ornamented with tropical trees, orch- 
ids, ferns, and vases of cut flowers. Then came the mar- 
vellous exhibition of cereals, sent by Professor Hilgard 
from California University ; another of grasses, and still 
another of seedling fruits. Figs, nectarines, grapes, plums, 
and wonderful boxes of raisins were the chief attractions. 
Many of these things, especially the University cereals, 
were described as raised without irrigation. What that 
will mean I shall know when I see the Professor. There 
were, of course, superb minerals. A great many things 
were exhibited cut from the shell called Abalone, or 
Venus's Ear. The lovely colors and shades of the shell 
are skilfully adapted to the objects represented, as was 
evident in the figures of birds and fishes. But these 
articles are very expensive ; for which there is no ex- 
cuse that I know, except that the polishing is done by 
hand. Three dozen buttons would have cost me thirty- 
six dollars ! and I saw nothing pretty under ten or fifteen. 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 121 

There were sleeve-buttons and stocking-balls of the beau- 
tiful woods of California, and others from the Sandwich 
Islands. Among them the sweet-scented Miua Loa, 
which always makes me a little sick, with its under odor 
of castor oil! Of pictures I saw only one I cared to look 
at a second time, and that was " The Lady of Shalott," 
by Anna Lea. Among the photographs I was chietiy 
interested in some of Taber's, representing the giant 
cacti and terrific wash-outs of Arizona. Some practical 
joker had marked the latter " Prehistoric Euins." 

The sun has not shone since I arrived until to-day. 
It is clear overhead, but the b^y is covered by a fog, 
which makes the Golden Gate invisible. 

At the risk of repetition, I must try and draw a pic- 
ture of this strange city. No one who has never seen it 
can imagine its bleak aspect. Imagine a three-pointed 
rock risino- from an ocean, hid in black and envious fous. 
Across these summits, lifted by almost perpendicular as- 
cents, the intersecting streets strike like huge steps, by 
which tliey must be climbed. If I look down when 
half way up the hill, or if I look across from the upper 
windows of the Palace Hotel, I seem to see a city built 
of stone, with outworks and door-yards that befit a forti- 
fication. No green thing flaunts on the air. The houses 
crowd upon one another. They are so foreshortened as 
to show no spacious areas, though there are many. All 
the accessories are absorbed by the rock itself A few 
disrnal-looking trees of a stone color, with tlieir branches 
tied down, may be seen. Down in the close streets the 
atmosphere is like that of other large cities; but climb to 
the crest of a hill, where you can catch the full force of 
the trade- wind, and it seems to stop your very breatli. 
The hills — Eincon, Telegraph, and Eussian — rise about 



122 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

three hundred feet above the Bay. Although the houses 
are built of wood for safety, they are cut and finished as if 
made of stone, and have that effect in all tlie better streets. 
California Street is crowned by two houses which look so 
exactly like huge fortresses that they give that charac- 
ter to the whole town. The flinty rock, which makes 
the heart of the three hills, is hidden out of sight by 
heaps of loose sand, which change their places every day 
at the instance of the Pacific winds. The sand was 
a source of great annoyance and suffering until it be- 
came possible to pave the principal streets. These are 
now as clean as any in Boston or New York ; but the mo- 
ment one goes beyond the city limit the old annoyance 
is felt, and the fleas that abide in the sand are not more 
active than every hopping, skipping particle of it. I was 
told not to bring black silk or velvet here. The ad- 
vice was as absurd as it would be in regard to New York 
or Washington ; but according to my usual foolish fash- 
ion, I believed what I was told, and followed it to my 
own great inconvenience. 

San Francisco feels poor for the first time. As this is 
quite evident to the stranger, it must be still more so to 
the people themselves. There is a shabby assortment of 
goods in many of the best shops, and superfluities are 
lower in price than necessaries, because of the hard 
times. 

I am told that the most finely decorated rooms in 
the city are the bar-rooms. San Francisco is not so 
unlike Leadville as one might at first think. It is so 
very orderly, that one is suspicious of what lies under 
the evident visible surface. I went into a jeweller's 
shop, largely patronized by the doubtful class of women. 
Its ceiling is adorned with frescos, representing houris, 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 123 

odalisques, and dancing girls of the size of life. They 
wear coronets, bracelets, and girdles of the richest 
jewels, which glow in the gaslight, and are removed 
every night. 

Dupont Street, just below nie on the hill, is devoted 
to " strange women," who remind me of Solomon's wea- 
risome experience every moment. What I saw there 
is far, far worse than anything I ever saw among the 
Mormons ; for this is evidence of fearfully disordered 
life, while polygamy at the worst is only a mistaken, 
or perhaps it would be better to say an anachronistic, 
order. ISTo woman goes through Dupont Street who 
can avoid it ; but it is frequently necessary. It is close 
to the busiest portion of the city for obvious reasons. 

The first time I came through it ignorantly, and this is 
what I saw. A row of small tidy houses, just one room 
wide. This one room was entered directly from the 
street. Opposite the entrance was a door opening into a 
kitchen or dining-room, with a servants' attic above. At 
the side of the entrance door was always one large win- 
dow, with green Venetian blinds outside. That first 
night these blinds were tied together with scarlet cords, 
leaving a space about four inches wide. The rooms be- 
hind were well lighted with gas. The windows were 
witliin fourteen inches of the floor, and just about where 
a woman's waist would come when she was standing; 
a bar crossed the open window-space cushioned in 
velvet or brocade, and deeply fringed. There were from 
ten to fifteen of these houses, and of course as many 
bars ; and over every one of them a woman leaned. In 
every case she looked healthy and clean, was perhaps 
more than commonly pretty, and had a quiet face ; with 
no look of shame, no air of brazen impudence, to betray 



124 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

her. When I passed the first time, leaning on a gentle- 
man's arm, I heard more than once the words, " Come 
in, darling, come in ! " But even that did not rouse my 
suspicions, so different was the whole air of the locality 
from anything I saw in the five years which I devoted 
to what people smother under the name of " the social 
problem." 

Among this score of women, only one was at all oc- 
cupied. She was a pretty blond creature, with fresh 
cheeks and a sweet innocent look, quietly sewing. 
Whatever may have been the reason, these women 
looked more healthy and more serene than the average 
woman of respectability. 

Imagine my surprise, then, when I walked the next 
day in full daylight through the street. These women 
were chattering French to each other and their ser- 
vants. Several of the rooms were thrown open, and in 
one of them an upholsterer was at work. The interiors 
were neat, and had a home-like, pleasant look. Each 
room was a bedroom, and on each open door was a silver 
plate bearing the occupant's name, — "Mile. Therese," 
" Mile. Adrienne," and so on. There were but two Eng- 
lish names, — " Miss Annie " and " Miss Harriet." The 
houses were evidently built for this bad use ; but in re- 
gard to their occupants our women's theories must fall 
to the ground. 

When long ago I had occasion to thifik and write on 
this subject, I sought the almost daily counsel of my 
friend Dr. E. H. Clarke. As I now looked and listened, 
I remembered what he once said to me, when relating 
to me his own experience as a physician among the 
grisettes of Paris : " You must not judge these women 
by your Puritan standard. They take up this life as an 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 125 

avocation. They come up to Paris to earn a dowry, and 
go back to the country to lead honest viUage lives as 
married women. This life is no more shameful to them 
than the buying and selling of goods. So long as they 
can continue to regard it in that way, it will degrade 
them less than the women who pursue it against their 
consciences." 

This was said by a man who led the purest life, and 
who cherished the noblest aspirations for his kind. No 
depraved or tawdry taste, no disease, disorder, or drunk- 
enness bore witness to the life led on Dupont Street, if 
one may judge after many inspections, any more than 
paint showed, as one might expect, on the fresh faces. 
Was it of such women as these that Dr. Clarke spoke ? 

" She lieth in wait for her prey, and increaseth transgres- 
sion among men." 

"And they departed, and she bound a scarlet line in the 
window." 

" And when Jehu was come, Jezebel painted her face, and 
tired her head, and looked out of a window." 

How these words of Scripture flashed into my mind, 
especially as I saw, day after day, that the " scarlet line " 
was sometimes changed two or three times in one day, 
and that the various colors used to tie the blinds were 
evidently signals hung out for special persons ! 

If I follow Dupont Street across California down the 
hill to the north, I enter Chinatown. Here a similar 
class of women, with painted faces, with henna-tipped 
eyelids, gummed hair, and jewelled ears, walk about 
the streets. If they show neither shame nor impu- 
dence, it is in this case because the soul has been 
dead in them and their forbears for centuries ; and if 
a few are young and pretty, the greater part are fear- 



126 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

fully diseased. San Francisco people have a great deal 
to say about the " stmnge women " in Chinatown, not 
a word about Dupont Street, where the little houses 
are built and owned by respectable church members, 
who do not wish to know where their rent comes from ! 
When the Californian is willing to enact and enforce 
one righteous law for the Mongol and the Anglo-Saxon, 
the Chinese problem will be easily dealt with. 

Another strange feature of this strange city, which is 
so quiet and orderly in comparison with what it once 
was that its inhabitants no longer know it to be strange, 
is the open bar-rooms, half-a-dozen of which I pass 
every day on the principal retail streets. The bar is 
set up in what would be the first floor of a house, only 
the entire wall is knocked away, and the pavement is 
carried over the line the wall once made, so that one 
may say the sidewalk has gone into " retreat." Here, 
sheltered from sun or storm, the proprietor offers all 
sorts of drinks ; and if one watches the faces of those 
who go in and out, it is clear that drunkenness is con- 
sidered no disgrace. I have never expressed an opinion 
here on the subject of temperance ; but I have asked 
many questions of those who drink as well as of those 
who do not. Every one asserts the vice to be a growing 
one. I do not believe in pledges as an efficient means of 
reform. I do not think we shall ever have a temperate 
community till we have a community reared under the 
law of perfect self-control ; but as I walk through these 
streets I see an "open way to hell," — positive instruction 
in lawlessness administered at every corner. As I have 
seen boys of twelve drinking at these bars, I am told 
that boys of the same age are investigating the mys- 
teries of Dupont Street! 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 127 

The loan shops are an attractive feature of San Fran- 
cisco. They are so because this is a cosmopolitan port, 
so that curios and jewelry from all parts of the world 
find their way into them. On one window-sill are tiger 
claws mounted by slender fingers on the banks of the 
Ganges ; Japanese crystals which Merlin would have 
coveted for his mirror, gold bracelets from Abyssinia, 
and silver peacocks from Mexico. One can hardly buy 
these things, low as the prices often are ; for they have 
passed from base men to baser women, and come to the 
pawnbroker at the end of a life no one would like to 
think of. I often pause and look into these windows 
because of the odd character of the things exhibited. 
Then " Uncle Harris " pops out of his retreat like a 
big spider: "Something you want to buy? Come in, 
ma'am, come in ! we 've a variety to show." But I believe 
I would rather go to a far worse place. 

In a shop on Montgomery Street the other day I saw 
two very interesting things. One was a double oak-leaf 
of pure gold, attached to a fragment of quartz, from the 
" Bio- Oak Flat." The leaf was fretted all over with al- 

o 

most invisible bubbles, and it was hard to believe it a 
freak of Nature. It has ninety dollars' worth of gold 
in it, and was. -priced at $250. The other was a mass 
of crystal from Fusiyan, eight inches high, three broad, 
and as many thick. It was also a freak of Nature, — a 
dragon rampant, to which the Japanese artist had fast- 
ened silver claws. It was priced at $200, and the owner 
asserted that it had not been cut ; but that I hardly 
believe. 

Chinatown must have a chapter by itself. As I look 
north from my lofty window, half way up California 
Street, I look down over a city of roofs. These are all 



128 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

flat, with narrow parapets. The lowest part of each roof 
seems to be in the centre. Some of them are surrounded 
by frail fences ; but on most of them, whether hotels or 
houses, there ai;e frailer sheds, where the Chinaman who 
does the washing for the family plants himself. On one 
of the parapets is a row of buckets, which at this dis- 
tance look like ink-bottles; and every morning the laun- 
der may be seen carrying his linen through the whole 
row. A Chinaman has not the smallest idea of cleans- 
ing clothes, unless he has been taught by some capable 
housekeeper, and kept at it long enough to fix the habit. 
He steeps his clothes in a solution of lime ; he dips 
them into an acid to destroy the lime ; he carries them 
rapidly from one of the ink-bottles to the other in the 
third place for a "rinse," then for a " blue ;" and finally 
he "gums" them in some mysterious manner best 
known to himself When he comes to iron them, he 
appears to use them very often instead of his handker- 
chief, — which explains the streaks on the wrong side 
of his work ! 

On Sundays the roofs are full of these creatures, getting 
up their own garments, — chiefly blue jean and white cot- 
ton. They have, among the poorer classes, so few changes 
of clothing that they often take off for this wash every- 
thing but their slippers and a single pair of drawers. They 
give the streets a very foreign look, as they patter about 
with a long yoke over their shoulders, from each end of 
which is suspended an inverted cone of a basket holding 
fruit and vegetables, or a bag of flour. I can imagine that 
when this was a mining community it was worth while 
to have the Chinese come over to do the washing ; but 
many of the best citizens do not employ them, and after 
a little experience I felt as if I could not. One of ray 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 129 

kindest friends sent me the colored woman employed 
by herself. The second week I left a message with the 
chambermaid for this laundress, desiring her to fold 
some articles in a particular way, as they were going to 
be packed and sent East. To this she retorted, " I have 
been washing too many years to take lessons," and went 
off without the clothes ! 

Professor Marsh, of Yale College, and several English 
men whom I had met in Colorado are here, buying old 
Japanese bronzes to take home. One of the latter was 
quite wild over some gold and silver cherry blossoms a 
fine artist had dropped all over the hilt of an old sword. 
I have been looking for al)alones again ; but the best 
shells are evidently sent to London and New York, and 
are cheaper there, where they are polished by machinery, 
than here, where it is all hand- work, and each shell 
takes an entire day. I think before the business troubles 
of San Francisco are over, the people will find it neces- 
sary to make change accurately. They must use the 
one-cent coin, and cease to regard " two bits" or ten-cent 
pieces as erpud to a quarter. I have been told here that 
" two bits " and " two dimes " were equivalent terms, and 
in buying fruit at the street stalls on all the corners I 
have tried experiments to test this. About half the 
time the dimes were taken ; but they were frequently re- 
fused, and I was glad of it, for it is a shiftless, dishonest 
way of proceeding. For my own part, T do not like to 
spend five cents where one will do, nor one when I ought 
to spend five. 

I have just wandered all round the fortified residences 
of Mrs. Mark Hopkins and Governor Stanford on the 
summit of the hill, getting su'ch an impression of bare 
rockiness as I never had in my life before. 



130 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

Aug. 28, 1880. — After loitering around the shop 
windows a while, I went down to the wholesale ware- 
houses to look at some Siberian goat-skins. They are 
floor-rugs, and about the same color as the Siberian 
squirrel-skins, but of course much larger and coarser. 
They are brought over in the Japanese mail-service, 
and I have never seen them at the East. 

After dinner I went to Red Man's Hall to see what 
the Women's Social Science Association was about. 
If I had been at home, the single line appended to 
the advertisement, "No gentlemen admitted," would 
have been sufficient to keep me away; for I do not 
believe that any good work of any kind will ever be 
done by one sex alone. The business was very loosely 
transacted. Dr. Saw telle read a very good paper on 
" Ventilation and Drainage." It was debated ; and I 
thought the debate showed very little real thought on 
the subject. Mrs. Stowe proposed a committee to take 
steps toward incorporation, in order that the Association 
might hold property. She wishes to buy a silk ranch, 
and open on it an industry for women and children. 
The majority of those present were opposed to this ; and 
there was really no need of discussing it at that time, 
as no money seemed to be ready. Whether it was a 
good thing to do I am not yet qualified to judge, but it 
is not the proper work of a social science association ; 
and so I said. The Association very kindly invited me 
to address them; and when I found it necessary to de- 
cline, voted to put aside their usual business at a mo- 
ment's notice, should I ever find it possible to do so. 
If this body of women will be frank and forbearing 
with each otlier, as men are trained to be by constant 
friction, they can do an immense amount of good. The 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 131 

danger is that those who disapprove of any advocated 
measure, lacking courage to say so, will drop out of 
the work. Several of the ladies claimed me as old 
friends, or friends of my son. In some way or other the 
labor question was broached, and I had to hear a great 
deal of the rant against capital which distinguishes 
most of the political gatherings in California. That 
certainly cannot be claimed as original woman's work, 
and it made me heart-sick to hear it. 

The meeting over I found myself the centre of a cor- 
dial group ; and strangest of all was the sweet, loving 
voice of a white-haired woman, who came forward with 
outstretched hands and said : " I have not heard your 
voice for tliirty-four years, and I knew it the moment 
you spoke!" I shall have to think wiiether that is a 
compliment or not. It seems to me that my voice ought 
to have grown sweeter and fuller beyond all recognition 
in these many years. This lady belonged to my free 
classes in Dr. Peabody's church at Portsmouth, N. H. 
Since I saw her she has travelled around the world on 
her own earnings. She lives in Berkeley, with her aged 
father, and her learning is spoken of with respect wher- 
ever she is known. She is now a governess. Happy 
tlie children who are in daily contact with the hopeful, 
aspiring spirit of Harriet Stevens ! Her eyes are as 
merry and as bright as they were in her girlhood. 

What a very small world our old earth is after all ! 

Sunday, August 29. — Very much do I regret the im- 
possibility of going to church and Sunday-scliool every 
Sunday. Mr. Stebbins's sermons are too good to miss. 
Berkeley, the seat of California University, where I have 
at least one good friend, is I suppose an extension of 



132 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

Oakland, which is inside the Golden Gate and exactly 
opposite San Francisco, on the Bay. At the mouth of 
the Bay, on the very Gate itself, lies San Francisco ; and 
the little watering-place of Saucelito is just across to the 
north, as Oakland is to the east. The Bay stretches 
north and south of these central points, which may be 
not inaptly described as the clasps of its girdle. The 
water-front of San Francisco lies to the north and east. 
AVest of it are several miles of dreary driving through 
the sand to the Pacific and the Cliff House, within 
sight of whose windows, if it ever is clear, the seals 
slip up and down the rocks. Market Street, California 
Street, and their parallels go south from the Bay and 
climb the sharp hills, already described, on their way. 
Montgomery and Kearney streets, with their parallels, 
terrace off the hills at every block. Anything more 
beautiful than the view of this harbor from these hills 
I do not believe tlie world holds, — that is, if the fog 
would only lift so one could see it! Beautiful it always 
must be in parts, but I have only seen it once, — on 
the night of my arrival, when e\'ery mast was hung 
with lamps, and the serene heaven bent like a crown 
of light over it all. To the south the Bay melts from 
the sight like the sea itself; to the north we look across 
Saucelito Bay to Angel Island, owned by the Govern- 
ment and covered by barracks and parade grounds. It 
shows a finely made road, and if there ever should be a 
clear sky I mean to try it. Alcatraz is nearer to you in 
the same line, and is a solid rock of not many acres, 
crowned by a heavy fortress. All the water used upon 
it must be carried to it ; and here is the fos^-bell. The 
whole Bay is dotted with islands and fringed with hills, 
— among which Mount Diablo to the east, behind Oak- 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 133 

land, and Tamalpais to the north, beyond Saucelito, are 
the finest, and always in cloud or sunshine make part of 
the landscape. It is said that no mountain of the same 
height in the world shows a view so fine of mountain 
sea, and valley as Mount Diablo; but not one in five 
hundred of those who climb it find their reward ! 

The name of Tamalpais has puzzled me very much ; 
none of the inhabitants could give any account of it. 
It is one of the finest of the coast hills, and its majestic 
outline -is everywhere to be seen. It is two thousand 
six hundred feet above the sea, and varies its light cos- 
tume of shadow and cloud with every passing moment. 
In the history of Marin County, in which Tamalpais is 
situated, two accounts are given of the origin of the 
name. In old Aztec, as in most of the Eomaic lan- 
guages, ^9a^s or ^;ft?/,9 (pronounced pice) means country. 
Tavial was tlie Aztec woi'd for a primitive dumpling of 
corn-meal wrapped round a bit of meat and boiled in a 
corn-husk. If this be the true origin, the name of 
Dumpling Land or Tamal Pais probably designated the 
shape of the hill. Others attribute the name to the 
Nicasio Indians, with whom Tamal means coast and 
jmis mountain ; from which we have the very name we 
confer naturally on the whole rangxB. 

I have said nothing of the tiny little island half way 
between San Francisco and Oakland, and still called 
Yerba Buena. The city of San Francisco, as M^e know 
it, is not yet forty years old ; but when the location was 
first occupied by a Franciscan mission which afterward 
gave its name to it, the good Fathers called the island 
Yerba Buena, in lionor of a fragrant and tonic mint 
which grew there, and which cured the prevailing agues 
and the "miners' fever," so far, at least, as the latter 



134 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

was a fever of the flesh ! When the first movement 
was made toward . the present city in 1835, this 
name was transferred to it ; but I believe it was not 
used after the first six or eight years. 

We started at ]ialf-]oast ten for Berkeley, and crossed 
the ferry to Oakland in a boat full of Sunday excursion- 
ists with their baskets. This boat is large and splendid 
beyond any mere ferry-boat that I ever saw, and it is 
kept in excellent order. The morning was lovely, but a 
black curtain hung over the Golden Gate, and many gray 
draperies fell from the sky to the sea. It was clear 
enough to give me partial visions of Tamalpais, and 
showed lovely opaline effects under the Coast Eange. It 
seemed to me, as I crossed this bay, that the water was 
deeper than on the Atlantic shore. Calm as it looked, 
I felt throughout the long roll of the sleepy Pacific. At 
Oakland we took the steam cars, for although Berkeley, 
the village in which the University is situated, is within 
the Oakland limits, it is five miles at least from the ferry. 
Many of the suburbs of San Francisco are beautiful, but 
they are too far away; and beautiful as the Bay is, magnif- 
icent as are its boats, a business man must be very tired 
of a trip which costs between two and three hours daily. 
I think the future should see a railway bridge connect- 
ing San Francisco with Goat Island, and that again with 
Oakland. All the railway trains I have found west of the 
Mississippi move at so slow a rate as to be tormenting. 
With a double track and proper speed, Chicago need not 
be more than three days' journey from San Francisco, 
A rapid train from San Francisco across the Bay would 
shorten distances immensely between home and shop. 

Oakland is named for the oak croves which adorn it, 
and its streets are well shaded, We had a delicious 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 135 

view of the Bay all the way. Our visit was to our friend 
the Secretary of the University, Professor Stearns, — a 
man whose rare gifts as a naturalist and artist make one 
regret that tlie principal clerical work of a great public 
institution should fall to his lot. He is living in a small 
house which he has lately built, surrounded by a flower 
garden. No one can imagine the number of flowers which 
one plant will produce in California until he has seen it. 
These flowers, superb as they may be, would never recon- 
cile me to the absence of grass. The gardens produce 
upon me the same dreary effect which I once experienced 
in Charleston, S. C, where a century plant or a cactus, 
springing from the dry soil, seemed a decoration best 
suited to the City of Desolation. In front of one of the 
houses which we passed, where there was a fine lawn, 
produced by costly irrigation, I saw a beautiful Norfolk 
Island pine. It had broad, palm-like leaves, every one 
of which was a branch. The principal streets of Berkeley 
are set with eucalyptus or blue gum, — that curious Aus- 
tralian tree,^as prodigal of blessings as the cocoa-palm. 
It is heteromorphous ; has round leaves when young, and 
lanceolate when old, square stems at one time and round 
at another, which give it a queer look. The jMonterey 
cypress is to be seen everywhere. It is a noble tree, 
with branches growing in shelves like those of the Cedar 
of Lebanon. In six years it shows a diameter of thirteen 
inches. If one is rich enough to buy water, one may 
have any amomit of trees and turf here. There is also 
a way of bordering flower-beds with a very green lit- 
tle moss, which takes away the dreary look ; but few 
people practise it. The wild-flowers, which I saw on 
the scorched ])lain as I walked about, were the cjolden 
esoholtzin or California poppy, a gigantic scarlet pimper- 



136 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

nel, staring boldly at the dry sky, wild- turnip and mus- 
tard, and a lovely little yellow thistle. 

After lunch we walked up to Professor Hilgard's. He 
has charge of the chemical agricultural department of the 
University, and sent the excellent collection of cereals 
grown without irrigation to the Fair, of which I have 
already spoken. His pretty house stands in a wilderness 
of flowers, perking up in the gayest and most confused 
manner from the dry soil. The magnolia grandiflora was 
showing snowy buds. An Eastern horticulturist would 
go wild over the wealth of carnations springing from one 
root ; and as for roses and fuchsias, the splendid color of 
their petals buries out of sight everything like a green 
leaf. 

After we left the house we walked throuoh the Uni- 
versity grounds. There are now several handsome build- 
ings erected, which I shall visit on some working day. 
They stand proudly on terraced slopes overlooking the 
Bay ; and the lofty mountains beyond. In the hollows 
of the slopes tower groves of live oak. The terraces 
have a promenade and a carriage drive, whe'nce we may 
look over Tamalpais, inspect the ridgy streets of this 
Western Tri -mountain, or count throuoh the shiftincj 
lights of the Golden Gate the comatose pulse of the 
Pacific. These terraces are planted with a gigantic dew 
plant, which binds the soil. No corporation in the world 
could afford to irrigate so many acres. The dew plant 
drinks deep of the heavy fogs ; it is a dark bluish green. 
The grounds are beautifully laid out. The green-houses 
are fine, and many Australian plants, beside the gum 
tree, are growing well, especially great numbers of gay- 
blossoming climbers. Our walk was frequently impeded 
by a disagreeable creature called tar-iveed. It under- 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 137 

took to smear our skirts as we went, and prevent us 
Iroui shaking off the dust they gathered. 

After my walk, Mr. Stearns took me to his study, and 
showed me some beautiful sketches and the specimens 
he is at present working up. Several varieties of cuttle- 
fish were there. He says I can find them in the old mar- 
ket near the l)ay, with tentacles more than six feet long. 
The tentacles are eaten, not only by the Cliinese, but by 
all Europeans, and are gelatinous like the nape of the hal- 
ibut. Tlie creatures have a horny beak like a parrot. He 
showed me a very interesting Aztec terra-cotta and a ver- 
rillia seven feet long, preserved in glycerine in a long glass 
tube. The glycerine was as clear as the glass itself; it 
had been given him by Agassiz. There were many others 
of the species no larger than threads. He is now working 
up a beautiful extinct helix from the very end of the Si- 
erra Nevada. He thinks it lived in rock crevices, and is 
a good instance of transformation compelled by environ- 
ment, of which naturalists do not take sufficient account. 

Professor Stearns reinforces my convictions as to the 
mistakes geologists fall into in deciding the lapse of 
time required for great changes. He saw the denuda- 
tion of ten years occur in three days last season in a 
canon near the coast. 

As we went home in the cars we took up the excur- 
sionists of the morning at a place called Shell Mound. 
They were not disorderly, when we consider that they 
were all more or less drunk. One fellow staggered into 
the car brandishing a bottle full of whiskey, whose 
praises he sang all the way to town. 

August 30. — I had a talk to-day with Mr. L., who 
lias been here seven years, concerning the Chinamen. 



138 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

Their filthy undergrouud dens were described. Mr. L. 
spoke of their treachery, of the murder of a white man 
known to him in this neighborhood, three Chinamen 
lying in wait for him at night on his own stairs. He 
told of a lady among his friends, who lately dismissed 
her cook for stealing, and was nearly murdered by him 
only a week or two ago. A German broker present 
described the subterranean horror called "The Last 
Chance," where the old and tlie diseased are carried to 
die without food or medicine. They lie in their coffins, 
which are set around the place like bunks. 

I said that from my own observation I should consider 
the Chinese orderly, but not clean, Mr. L. said that 
was the fact, and that he could tell stories of their 
filthiness which would not be believed. He alluded to 
the dirty ways in the laundries. Mrs. L.'s sister had a 
Chinaman for five years. When he wanted to go back 
to China, he brought another to take his place, and re- 
mained to teach him. During that time he was de- 
tected in an attempt to break into Mrs. L.'s room at 
midnight, and was put into the penitentiary for steal- 
ing her jewels. This sort of talk may be hardly worth 
repeating, but Mr. L. takes no interest in politics or 
tlie labor question; is not a householder; and it was 
curious to see how exactly his observations tallied with 
those of more prejudiced men. I have been told sev- 
eral times that a Chinaman, however honest in your ser- 
vice, feels at liberty to steal the moment his contract is 
terminated. 

I meant to have spoken yesterday of a fine Japanese 
ivory shown me by Mr. Stearns. It represents two 
monkeys devouring a man. It is only a skeleton which 
they clutch between them. One has torn out the heart, 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 139 

the other devours the brain. All these figures rest on a 
large human skull ! It looked a little like a satirical 
jest aimed at the Darwinians. 

August 31. — This afternoon I went with my cousin 
to San Eafael. This is a little town to the north of Oak- 
land, wdth a ferry of its own. It is just an hour from 
the city, and I think in Marin County, under Tamal- 
pais ; but as I cannot find it on any of my maps I may 
be mistaken. When I first arrived in San Francisco, 
I w^ent to a leading bookstore bearing, a well-known 
name, for a guide-book. It w^as not until I had paid 
for it and taken it home, that I discovered it was nine 
years old and incorrect in every particular relating to 
the Yosemite, for which I hail especially purchased it ! 
As the salesman refused to take it back, the cheat re- 
minded me of another incident of my journey which I 
believe I have never told you. Between Chicago and 
Omaha — just as I met Miss Cleveland — I inquired 
on the cars for a " Guide across the Continent." I had 
examined one in a bookshop at a dollar and a half the 
day before. One was brought me in the car, and the 
price named as $2.25, the salesman asserting that it was 
of a new edition of increased value. I had every reason 
to believe that I had previously seen the new edition ; 
so I asked leave to examine it. I kept it some time, and 
was much puzzled by the omission of the title-page which 
should have shown the date. The lad asserted that it 
was all right; so I finally paid the two dollars and twenty- 
five cents. In a few moments I saw Miss Cleveland 
reading one like it, and I asked with an apology if she 
would tell me where she bought it. " On this car," she 
replied. " And what did you give for it ? " — "A dollar 



140 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

and a half." When my friend took her paper cutter 
and pressed back the leaves in my copy it was evident 
that the title-page had been carefully cut out. In a few 
moments I had an opportunity to ask the name of the 
pedler of the conductor. I wrote it down carefully, 
and then said to the conductor : " Go to this book-aoent 
and tell him that unless he refunds me seventy-five 
cents, I shall denounce him immediately to this com- 
pany, who do not tolerate any cheats." After an ex- 
planation the conductor went off; and in a few mo- 
ments I had my money back, and was listening to all 
sorts of lying protestations, which I quickly checked. 
In spite of such experiences I have bought a good 
many maps, and found them very unsatisfactory. 

San Eafael seems to be a good deal in the hands of a 
Mr. Colman, who plants avenues of eucalyptus, cypress, 
and other trees. It contains five or six hundred fam- 
ilies, whose heads are in business in San Francisco, and 
has no poor population whatever. It nestles under 
Tamalpais, which, being high enough to bathe in the 
clouds, keeps green and beautiful all the year, while all 
the other hills are brown and dry. My cousin's little 
daughter was waiting in the pony phaeton to take me to 
the house. This is surrounded by a quarter of an acre 
of lawn as green as possible, and starred with the love- 
liest flowers. The piazza is covered with passion flow- 
ers. But, alas, the lawn was wet ! The children may 
not roll on it, nor their elders play croquet. Dear stayers 
at home, remember your blessings ! 

I enjoyed the trip over the Bay as usual, although it 
was half veiled in fog. My cousin called it a very clear 
evening ! I believe all the people are so used to the fog 
that they do not see it if there is a ray of sun overhead. 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 141 

For myself I was never weary of longing for one clear 
glimpse of the beautiful water, with its fortressed rocks, 
its rina of mountains, and the opaline splendor which 
the sunset throws across it. 

San Rafael, September 1. — This morning I had a deli- 
cious drive in the pony phaeton with Mrs. F. We went 
back and forth among the hills, of which only Tamalpais 
is fresh and dewy. These are very steep, and lovely val- 
leys filled with live-oak are to be seen on all sides. One 
ravine looked so much like New England in November 
that it made the tears start. There are beautiful country 
seats, with turf green as emerald within their gates, — as 
great a contrast to the burnt sod without as heaven would 
be to hell. This is a country in which only rich people 
can enjoy themselves. It was intensely hot, but I did 
not realize it we moved so slowly. After we came down 
from the hills we went about the town and looked at the 
pretty places, — at the avenues of acacia, blue gum, cy- 
press, and oak. The finest lawn we saw was a Mr. Cook's ; 
but why have green grass, at the cost of a fortune, if you 
cannot walk on it or sit on it ? Very beautiful ferns abound 
here in the spring. The mosquitoes are very thick, un- 
used to human flesh, and so light that you can kill them 
with a touch. 

SejJtemher 2. — We started early to go back to San Fran- 
cisco. All the way over, my cousin was saying how de- 
lightfully clear it was, and I was thinking how the heavy 
fog spoiled all things ! Not that the fog has not a beauty 
of its own, but I could see that on the Atlantic coast. 

I have been taking steps to go to Portland, and have 
been offered passes on the steamer with the Presidential 



142 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

party ; but I think I shall hardly have time to see the 
whole of California itself. 

This afternoon I went to Mrs. H. D.'s rooms to hear 
Mrs. Williams — the daughter of James, the novelist — 
give an analysis of " Eomeo and' Juliet." I was a good deal 
amused when she said that as it was Eomeo's impatience 
which brought the story to a tragic end, so his weakness 
of character would have made it a greater tragedy still if 
the pair had survived and lived together ! The heroic 
character of Shakspeare's women and the non-heroic 
character of his men was further commented on. It was 
all very bright. 

The female school-teachers of San Francisco interest 
me very much. I have had a long talk v/ith two of 
them to-day. I think them superior to most of those in 
similar positions in Boston or Providence. 

I keep trying experiments with the fruit at the street 
corners, but none of it is luscious. However fair it looks, 
it has a thin, watery character. Earlier in the season I 
should have found the mango apple from Acapulco and 
dried plantain served up in corn-husks. ISTow I find the 
citrons, oranges, lemons, and limes ; but, with the ex- 
ception of the limes, all seem to me of coarse fibre and 
inferior flavor. There are many figs ; and when they are 
skinned and cut up, and eaten with sugar and cream, 
they are agreeable. So are most things ! Olives, al- 
monds, raisins, prunes, and dates abound ; but I defer 
speaking of them until I have seen them growing. 

San Francisco, Scptcinher 3. — I have been exploring 
the south side of the town to find the Eincon school. As 
I passed up Third Street I went through a perfect arcade 
of loan-shops of the second class, quite as entertaining 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 143 

in their way as those on Kearney Street, and quite as 
cliaracteristic. Here the sailors' sweethearts deposit rare 
shells, carvings from the Sandwich Islands, idols from 
the Burmese sea, and walrus tusks from the whalers. 
One is continually reminded of the close proximity of 
San Francisco to the regions of myrrh and frankincense. 
It was only after an hour's hard walking that I found 
the steep steps wdiich lead to the bridge across First 
Street, on Harrison Avenue, and climbed to the Vassar 
Street entrance of the Piincon school. This bridge is a 
testimony to the numicipal destruction of Eincon Hill, in 
total disregard of the rights of property-owners. Yery 
many such interferences w^e have to lament in Wash- 
ington. 

The gate into the yard was locked, on account of various 
small thefts which have occurred ; but after much rinoing^ 
a little girl appeared, and led me to a pleasant office on 
the second floor, where I found Miss Cleveland. The 
room w^as neatly carpeted, had a useful little library, 
and all the papers were arranged in the orderly w^ay 
which one expects of a sensible woman. Her assistant 
is a Miss Stowell, who came from Deerfield, Mass., and 
knew me and my traditions. She is a well instructed 
Unitarian. I heard some recitations in grammar and 
arithmetic, and listened to some good music. There is 
excellent discipline in the school. The children are plain 
and clean in their dress, a very great and pleasant con- 
trast to our Boston school-children, who dress too much. 
" What could the daughters of onr lords w^ear more ? " 
asked poor Lady Amberley, when I took her through the 
Irish school on South Street. Every room in the Eincon 
is clean and well ventilated, and bears witness to the in- 
fluence of Xew Encjland. When we went back to the 



Ui MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

office, a child who had been degraded for falsehood came 
there to talk the matter oat. She had not the smallest 
sense of shame, and was not in the least annoyed by my 
presence. I was much struck by the grieved and serious 
manner of the teacher throughout the interview. The 
present School Board is undertaking an economical re- 
form, which begins by cutting down the salaries of the 
best teachers, and has roused very serious opposition. 
The teachers appealed to the Legislature, who decided in 
their behalf ; but the Board refused to obey, and appealed 
from the decision. There is probably need of economy 
in all State and municipal expenses ; but this is not the 
place where it should first be felt. 

After dinner, N. and I took the Geary Street cars to 
the Park, — the Golden Gate Park,^ a delicious tract of 
turf and flowers redeemed from sand-dunes and desert, 
which may well be the pride of San Francisco. We had 
been told that carriages would meet us at the gate of the 
Park, but this proved a mistalvC. We therefore walked 
on to the Conservatory, where we found a lovely show 
of flowers. I have never seen more orchids together in 
my life, nor a greater variety of briglit-leaved plants. A 
great many different colored leaves were found springing 
from one root. I saw the coleus in bloom, — a delicate 
purple spike, which looked oddly coming out of the 
heart of beet-red leaves. There were oranges and bananas 
growing, and a very great variety of begonias. I saw for 
the first time one of the enormous monumental cacti of 
Arizona, — a pillar of green standing twenty feet high, 
grooved by vertical rows of spines, and crowned by a 
capital of white blossoms in which each flower looked like 
a Cape jessamine. If the Greeks had access to any such 
things amid the Libyan sands, there was no occasion to 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 145 

invent orders of architecture. I am told here that in 
the old Ophir and Mexican mines there is a world of 
fungi that counterfeit everytliing known or imagined. 
Some of them are ten feet liigh, and look like sheeted 
ghosts. Others look like snowy owls or bearded goats, 
and they are so white that they seem as if cut out of 
marble. Great bunches of what looks like snow-white 
hair drip from tlie branches, and soft pulpy snow-white 
masses form on the levels, which seem to arise from 
some of the deposits made when the mines were worked. 
Sometimes one of these funsri lifts a rock weiijhinu" a 
hundred pounds three or four feet into the air. On the 
highest levels, where the air is driest, these fungi are of 
a more delicate make. They look like twisted rams' horns, 
or the bunches of white paper which are hung in the 
Shinto temples to catch and detain the sun-god. Some- 
times a sino'le stem seems to blossom into a thousand 
lilies, and nothing has been found in these mines which 
resembles the fungi of the outer world. 

One of the most interesting things to a traveller on 
this Western slope is the mimetic or prophetic character 
of natural objects. The stone wonders of the parks in Col- 
orado suggest as much as the fungi of Ophir, butthey cer- 
tainly rose to the surface before the world was peopled. 

In the tank of the Conservatory a blue lotus had just 
come to perfection, and a pink one promised to do so 
in a few days. The green-house has three domes ; under 
one of them the palms were growing, under another, 
our common balsams or touch-me-nots lifted their frail 
stems, hung with "jewels" of every color. The whole 
park is surrounded with magnificent roads, made of the 
disintegrated surface of the mountains, which make the 
causeways delightful all the way from Colorado. They 

10 



146 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

are said to be as fine as the famous shell roads of New 
Orleans. Within the park they are bordered — for it is 
hardly more as yet — by the most delicious verdure, the 
sod being formed of a fine trefoil. Walking back to a 
dummy which connects with the Geary Street road, and 
regaining that, we found a carriage in which we swept 
onward to the Cliff House. We started in a pale sun- 
shine, which was more cold than clear, and went on in 
one of the heaviest fogs I ever encountered. At first 
it rolled over the open dunes like solid balls of cotton. 
Then it took on a brown color, and settled into all the 
hollows, where it might to all appearances have been 
cut in slices and broiled for breakfast. 

We swept between vast sand-hills and plains, covered 
with sage-brush, with a vast array of lupin, yarrow, 
yellow thistle, and the like. Anything drearier even in 
sunshine it would be impossible to conceive ; and yet 
even to-day a few slant beams would now and then deck 
the shifting heaps with a sort of iridescent golden glow. 
When we reached the Cliff House, the seal rocks were in- 
visible, and the animals themselves had retired to the 
sacred privacy which the weather made desirable. Our 
garments were soaked ; and, as my daughter is subject 
to chills, I got out of the carriage and went in search of 
some stimulant. I finally found a private parlor, where 
I rang a bell and ordered two glasses of lager. For 
these two glasses we paid the modest sum of fifty cents ; 
but that was surely better than a fit of illness. 

We drove a long way by the sea. It was a bold thing 
to undertake to make a park out of pure sand ; but at 
any cost it must be considered a delight and a privi- 
lege to contrive an ocean park, with beaches and sea- 
. lions ! Near the water grows a dark glossy hibiscus, 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 14? 

which had crimson blossoms two months ago ; and about 
the time that they sold lilacs for ten cents a bunch the 
bristly cactus put out along the shore a dull red bloom. 
I am not so much impressed by a foreign look to the 
vegetation as I expected to be ; but everywhere I find 
the eucalyptus or blue gum of Australia both striking 
and ugly. It has, however, a most refreshing pine-like 
odor, with a drooping air. It is an evergreen. . The 
first year's leaves are obovoid, of an ashy blue color. 
The older leaves are long and narrow, and of a 
dark glossy green. Two branches often cross each 
other, which look as if they could not belong to the 
same tree, the longest leaves being not less than twelve 
inches. The bark is very thin and of a light reddish 
yellow, smooth as that of the sycamore ; but soon de- 
taching itself as the tree ages, in long ghostly strips, 
which make it in my opinion entirely unfit for a lawn. 
It has a wonderful power of condensing the moisture 
in the air ; and this, when not a drop of rain falls, will 
run down the lono; funnel-like leaves until it stands in 
pools, or forms a small rivulet at the foot of the tree. 
The fruit is like an acorn cup, full of tiny seeds. Six- 
teen years ago some blue gums were set out in Oakland, 
Looking a good deal like a field of cabbage ; these are now 
nearly seventy feet high, and some of them at one foot 
above the ground measure three and a half feet in circum- 
ference! This rapid growth and the condensing power 
would alone make the tree very valuable in a dry, bare 
country like California on the coast ; but it is also good 
fire-wood. It is full of an aromatic oil of great medicinal 
and artistic value, whose uses are hardly yet understood. 
It absorbs malarial influence, deadens bad odors, and is 
considered to stand as hii>h as the cocoa-nut in its use- 



148 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

fulness to mankiDcl. The fine Japanese photographs 
which took the gold medal at Vienna, in 1873, were set 
with the gum of the eucalyptus. 

As we drew near the Gerry Street exit from the park 
on our return, we came into a wealth of gaily blooming 
borders, flowering shrubs, and emerald turf of which I 
can give no idea. It is overwhelming ! I do not know 
that- 1 have seen a single flower in California which I 
have not seen before, but the luxuriance of their bloom 
cannot be imagined by those who have not seen it. 
Hedges of fuschia divide the front door-yards ; roses 
nod from the eaves. A wall of geraniums fifteen feet 
high now and then compels one to stare. The gardens 
are a tangle of superb color. And yet I have not l3een, 
and shall not go, to Santa Eosa, — the most luxuriant 
place on the northern coast. 

Scj^itemher 4 — To-day I went to the several markets, 
which are very fine, but do not impress me with any great 
wonder. The arrangement of articles is not so good as at 
the East, and I did not see nor have I yet tasted one 
ripe tomato among thousands. Figs and grapes abound. 
I was sent out here to eat grapes, but I have not yet 
eaten any. They are sour and watery, and do not tempt 
me. When I ciiticise them, my friends suggest a new 
kind ; but the new kind has the same fault. The meats 
are cleaned and skewered to suit the taste of all countries 
except America ! There seemed to be a hundred kinds of 
sausages and brawn ; and many kinds of unknown cheese, 
hard and soft, sound and rotten, spoke their own praises 
in detestable odors of one kind or another. The cool 
climate prevents the fish-market from being as disgust- 
ing as I have often found it, but I observe that the 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 149 

poultry is generally sold alive as at Washington, — a 
troublesome practice for which there is certainly no ex- 
cuse here. 

Mr. Stearns met us at the old market, and went off 
with me on a raid for odd creatures. My octopus 
looked so queer when I saw it, that I think I should 
hardly have known it without his help. The body, with 
its upstart eyes and parrot beak, is so small that tlie 
tentacles falling from it in a bunch, and about seven feet 
long, looked like so many ropes of human flesh. The 
little cups upon them were large enough for easy exami- 
nation. Small oysters to-day are six bits (or seventy -five 
cents) a hundred, which would about fill a pint measure ! 
Large ones are fifty cents a dozen. Shrimps are abund- 
ant, eerie-looking creatures that they are ! Craw-fish 
are " devilish," as Pet Marjorie would say ; in earnest, 
they have a wicked look. The fish-market is not a good 
one. The smelts and anchovies are fine, but the laro-er 
fish are not inviting to one who knows Gloucester Bay. 

1 also went to the Coast Survey to look at all sorts of 
charts of this region, but I did not find those in charge 
of the office able to explain them. 

Once or twice to-day I have been told that something 
" costs a cent." It is a good sign. Poverty, or perhaps 
I should say rcvc^rse, is teaching tliis people a much- 
needed lesson. 

This afternoon I went to Woodward's Gardens. They 
were given to the city by Mr. E. B. Woodward in 1860, 
and it is claimed that the whole income has been used 
to add to the attractions. These Gardens consist of two 
great parks, lying on different sides of a road, and con- 
nected by an underground tunnel. On one side is a 
beautiful garden, a museum, and a great pond for geese 



150 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

and duckg, besides some cranes and a big cormorant, who 
is a nasty, greedy fellow that vomits his food all over 
the rocks, as if it were on purpose to disgust little boys 
with greediness. It is so dry in San Francisco that any- 
thing green is delightful, and people make picnics in this 
garden. I did not wait for the concert, but went to see 
the seals and sea-lions fed. As I went out I saw a tiny 
green paroquet and two little houses full of a hundred 
little white mice, which ran in and out the doors and win- 
dows, up ladders and over each other's backs. The seals 
are ugly creatures, Charlie. You would never think it ; 
but if mamma can show you a leech, they look just like 
that, only so big ! If not, you must think of a bolster 
made of black leather, pinched so as to look like a head 
at one end, and with four fins or flippers that the seal 
uses for feet, and whicli look as if they had been cut out 
of India rubber. In the head is a pair of soft, pretty 
eyes. They tumble off the rocks w^ith a great splash, and 
bark like dogs. They swim on their sides, and when they 
eat anything it protrudes all along the passage through 
the body, exactly as if they were snakes. Professor 
Henry says that there are four museums here, all classi- 
fied and well arranged, but I had not time to examine. 
There is a fine menagerie. There are vast conservatories 
and a rotating zoographicon, wliich undertakes to show 
the physical geography and the animal and vegetable 
fauna of the world, in eight rotating sections, and does it 
fairly well. There is an Art Gallery and there are eight 
marble statues outside in the grounds, and if these are 
not remarkable they have a very pleasing effect. On one 
side of the tunnel are verdant retreats and the great audi- 
ence hall ; on the other, a great playground for the chil- 
dren, with swings, goat carriages, camels, and donkeys 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 151 

for them to rule, and little boats on a pond. In a gal- 
lery which looks down on this gay place are all the cages 
of the menagerie and a tower with a camera. Besides 
showing us the usual moving pictures, this camera re- 
vealed the monkeys combing their babies' hair, the seals 
plunging, and even the white mice skipping over each 
other. There is also a skating rink ; and so well is the 
whole place managed that no accident has occurred 
within these grounds during the whole twenty years 
since they w^ere opened, and the children of the middle 
classes are often left here for a whole day without a 
protector. There are stands for the sale of fruit and 
candies, as well as for all sorts of drinks. 

On May Day all this was opened for a festival. The 
children carried or bought their lunch, and played with 
bright birds, such as cockatoos, parrots, and pheasants. 
There were two May poles with red, white, and blue rib- 
bons, and round these and the happy little queen danced 
a hundred little fairies, dressed in bright colors to imi- 
tate May flowers. Nowhere have I seen so orderly a 
crowd as in this pretty place ; but our own adventures 
will best display its charms. The ordinary afternoon 
performance was half over when we arrived, but in the 
pavilion we saw incredible feats on the flying bars by 
Mons. Loyal. Then a coarse Irish fellow sang a mad or 
drunken song in a way to amuse those who do not know 
what a sad and serious matter a drunken frolic is. Then 
the " Great Dyllur," whoever he may be, sang the " Mc- 
Carthy's Party," of which I brought away the important 
fact that " seventeen were present ! " The show was 
ended by a comic pantomime called " Covers for Three," 
in which all the company appeared. There was a young 
girl and her mother ; the latter sent her to the ironing 



152 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

board when she wanted to play the harp. But then a 
series of lovers came in and had a word to say about it. 
One jealous fellow tormented all the rest, who were one 
after the other covered up like furniture and finally de- 
tected. The girl appreciated this young demon's sharp- 
ness, for she finally accepted him. There were many 
comic points, but nothing bad ; on the whole the thing 
was cleaner than could be expected. 

There was a good concert after this ; but I pursued 
white mice and bigger creatures, and finally the zoo- 
graphicon, which w^as capital, although I am sure the same 
snowy peak in it officiated alternately as three separate 
mountains and an icebero- ! There is the most mai>uifi- 
cent aquarium I ever beheld, but I hardly enjoyed it 
I wanted Willis and Charlie so mucli. You go down 
into a subterranean grotto, entirely surrounded by great 
glass tanks, green as the sea and as clear as light. I 
think they are about four feet high, and open to the air 
and sunshine at the top. The light passes through the 
water and shows every object clearly. It is as if you 
were in an enchanted bubble at the bottom of the ocean. 
All sorts of fisli are to be found in the tanks. The salt 
water ripples through them all the time, and the crea- 
tures are healthy and vigorous and most beautiful to 
see. We began with cray-fish, and went on to sharks 
and sturgeon. Trout, tom-cod, and salmon were all 
active and undisturbed by our prying gaze. 

When we came out we went to the Exotic Gar- 
dens, whose products we had seen at the fair. There 
are fine conservatories and a tropical garden, which is 
probably kept up in winter but looked forlorn enough 
to-day. 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 153 



A Eesume. 



Sept. 4, 1880. — What would my darlings like to hear 
of all this wonderful journey that I have taken ? Shall 
I tell them of the Egyptian lotus blooming in the Calu- 
met Kiver, and sold by children in Chicago streets ? 
Who dropped the seed just there and in the Kouge, and 
nowhere else in this wide land ? How is it possible to 
tell of it, and not recall the Egyptian head-dresses and 
calm Osirian face of the finest Peruvian terra-cottas, to 
be seen to best advantage in the museum at Ithaca, or 
in the superb collection of Walter Evans at New Eo- 
chelle ? Shall I talk about the great pillared cacti of 
Arizona, rising fifteen and twenty feet, whosy snowy 
capitals are alive with fragrance and beauty ? Shall I 
tell how the five stone toes of Atlas, protruding from 
the soil of Glen Eyrie, are notliing less than just such 
cacti turned to stone, or how the whole country is filled 
with mimetic ruins, Egygtian tombs, like those at Aboii 
Simbel, with visionary giants leaning back like Eamses ; 
old castles of the Ehine, with arches and portcullis, 
with miglity walled cities or fortresses a thousand feet 
up in the air, for which the country finds no grander 
name than "wash-outs"? Shall I tell how the de- 
creasing herds of antelope still flash across the plains ; 
how the bison are no longer seen, although their heads 
are nailed to many a frontier wall ; how the lazy In- 
dian still loiters around '' the track," and shows her 
pappoose gladly for two bits ; while away in mountain 
fastnesses, not out of sight of the mountain coach, the 
wild-cat and the mountain lion still dispute the pass 
with the rattlesnake ? 

Shall I tell how I saw a little child pass though one 



154 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

of the wildest and wickedest crowds in Leadville, lean- 
ing on the shoulder of her tiny jackass, whom she half- 
caressed and half-punished with her baby hand ; or how, 
in the " Garden of the Gods," a snowy rampart from the 
Jura springs suddenly from the soil, and confronts the 
bloody sandstone of the Trias, with mysterious signifi- 
cance ? Or shall I tell them how we climbed the Sier- 
ras, and with jaded eyes saw Lake Donner two tliousand 
feet below, and at last ghidly caught the first sea-breeze 
at Sacramento, and floated down by its broad waters, 
till the white bosom of the mighty Pacific slione and 
throbbed for us beyond the Golden Gate ? 

Shall I tell how the rocky steeps of San Francisco 
rise over hills too perpendicular for horses, with a clim- 
ate whose coolness veils a burning heat, whose summer 
warmth scarce hides the winter's breath ? Will they 
hear how, when I ask a question on the street in 
English, it is answered in a dozen different tongues ; 
how the marvels of all lands lie in the windows of 
pawnbrokers shops; and how the pleasantest place I 
have seen since I left home is the Grammar School on 
Rincon Hill, where Miss Cleveland and Miss Stowell, 
with their score of assistants, preside in the old New 
England way, and half cheated me into believing I had 
not crossed the Eockies at all ? From my window I 
look down over Chinatown, where there is hidden the 
terrible traditionary refuse of a past faith and a past 
civilization, taking forms unintelligible to any but the 
student of Aristophanes. Among the coolies who trot 
by, smoking opium twisted in brown paper, and on a 
yoke across their shoulders carrying baskets of fruit, 
vegetables, or meats, there is a worse slavery than that 
our Civil War has hardly yet exterminated. I am 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 155 

not so afraid of tlie leper who drags his weary leiigtli 
along, a little beliind, as of the legacy which China- 
town, — yes, Chinatown, — even when broken up, de- 
molished, and burned dean, is yet to bequeath to this 
Western coast. 

For the fortnight that I have been here, the sun has 
never once risen or set. He finds such a heavy break- 
fast of Pacific fog that it takes him all day to devour it, 
and the meal is followed by such throes of indigestion 
that he dare not lift his head from its gloomy sheets. 
Yet the market is full of peaches and pears, and plums 
and grapes, of nectarines and apricots, of figs purple and 
figs wdiite ; so there is a sun somewhere and he shines ! 
Do all these things taste good ? Not a bit of it. They 
bewilder the eye with their lovely colors ; but one north- 
ern peach is worth them all, and is a better hint of the 
infinite love and beauty. And there are less lovely 
things in the market. There are slnimps, those ghosts 
of shell-fish who bear the same relation to crabs and 
lobsters that May-flies do to the devil's darning-needle. 
There are cray-fish, with a wicked, uncanny look ; and 
since not only the Chinese, but all the foreign residents 
eat them, tliere are cuttle-fish, whose tentacles drop 
down from their small bodies like ropes of flesh, with 
polyp-like blossoms all along. I saw one this morning 
with six arms, dropping down nearly seven feet each in 
length ! And all the years our respected fellow-citizens 
have been breakfasting on these gelatinous curiosities, 
our scientific friends across the water have been gravely 
wondering whether Victor Hugo did not invent the 
devil-fish ! And that reminds me to say that one thing 
a traveller must learn on this Western trip, — and tha^t is 
greatly to distrust the definite conclusions of scientific 



153 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

men. No one who has seen a sudden storm undo the 
work of a century, an alkaline plain turn into a hay- 
field in one short month, or a lake thirty-five miles long 
by sixteen wide drained by a year's irrigation, can feel 
at all sure that into scientific chronology all the. condi- 
tions have been entered. 

Yesterday I went to see the wonderful park which Cal- 
ifornia has made out of six square miles of sand-dunes. 
I went to get my first view of the Pacific and the rocks 
where the seals still clamber ; but on the way the fog 
which the trade-winds bring shut me in. This after- 
noon I was carried off to Woodward's Gardens, not know- 
ing in the least what I was to see. Glad indeed was I 
that I went, for nowhere in the world can one see so 
much for " two bits." It occupies two blocks of land, — 
one, a pretty verdant slope of landscape gardening ; the 
other, supplied with swings for children, goat carriages 
and donkey drives, zoological dens and a camera. There 
are four museums, menageries, and conservatories, an 
art gallery, and a vast audience hall. It was impossible 
to see all these thincjs in one afternoon ; and I went to 
the regular entertainment, which was half over before I 
arrived. My part of it began with incredible feats by 
a flying acrobat, who always did what he undertook, 
but did it so clumsily that he l^ept me in perpetual 
terror. He was followed by a Rose Julian, who went 
through posturing feats in so little clothing that I could 
not have endured it if she had looked in tlie least like 
a woman ; but she was only a tangle of legs and arms 
which seemed to chanqe places, and mioht have belonged 
to a cuttle-fish. The saddest sight of all was a dear 
little child not six years old, who danced skilfully to a 
tambourine, but with a pale face which told what she 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 157 

had suffered in learning. Comic songs and a comic 
pantomine were followed by a concert ; but all these I 
left to go in search of something which delighted me ex- 
tremely. I mean the subterranean aquarium, in which 
all sorts of fishes and shell-fish live in great tanks of sea- 
water, some dozens of which are set into the walls of a 
dark grotto. You see the fishes just as they see each 
other, vivid with iridescent color, darting \Yith grace- 
ful play of fins or tails, half-transparent and altogether 
lovely. Aladdin must have inspired the whole thing. 

Scpt.b, 1880.-— I heard Mr. Peabody preach this 
morning, and this afternoon I went up to the San 
Dolores Mission. It was built by Junipero Serra of ad- 
obes, and dedicated Oct. 9, 1776. It was liere that he 
erected a cross, and gave to the port the name of San 
Francisco. Some of the outbuildings still linger, and 
wherever the mission churches are found, the school- 
houses, tanneries, and workshops attached to them give 
them the air of a picturesque hamlet in old Spain. 

The adobe wall is covered with white stucco or 
"rough cast." The church is long and narrow. The 
lower half of the wall shows several short, thick, white 
columns, and above in the gable are three open arches 
in which are three bells, one larger than the others. 
They have quite a Moorish look, and are very sweet 
in tone. As the' church was not open, we went in 
through the priest's house. On the right as I entered 
was an extraordinary fresco painted on broad sheets 
of cartridge paper fastened to the wall in squares like 
patchwork, and representing the baptism of some Indian 
converts. There are three shrines beside that of the 
Virgin, all decorated in crimson and gold, and with 



158 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

three or four figures carved in wood, each of which 
represents one of the heroes of the Franciscan or Jesuit 
order. One was the great Las Casas himself. 

Outside, the roof is covered with long red tiles, look- 
ing lilvc bits of split cinnamon lapped over each other, 
as Bret Harte once said. Inside, the roof is painted 
so as to suggest the same thing. 

There is a very large graveyard attached to this mis- 
sion, well filled with the unmarked graves of two thou- 
sand Indians, whose names, however, are said to be 
wTitten in the " Book of Life " and in the early records 
of the church. On the side opposite the strange fresco 
the doors and windows of the old church open into this 
garden of graves. It is overcrowded and badly kept, 
but is a tropical wilderness of flowers. A superb old 
damask rose brought from Spain by the monks has the 
size of an apple-tree, and nods oyer half the tombs and 
into the open door of the church. The periwinkle sends 
up sprays of purple and green to the height of three 
feet, and its flowers are as large as our morning glory. 

There are two remarkable monuments. A white mar- 
ble obelisk erected to the memory of the first governor 
of Alta California, and another to the honor of a wretch 
wdio was put to death in the Plaza during the reign 
of " The Vi!j:ilantes," for several murders and a host of 
minor atrocities. It was erected by "many friends" 
who undoubtedly ought to have shared his fate. The 
flowery vistas of the old place are still charming, and 
the decorations of the walls are interesting because they 
were the work of the Indians themselves. 

There is a story to-day about malarial fever at Port- 
land, which makes it most unlikely that N. would dare 
to go there with me. Mr. Ball's illness will probably 
make it impossible. 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 159 

We called on Mr. Peabody this evening, and he urges 
me to go to Santa Barbara on my return from Los An- 
geles for the sake of the little church. I saw. too, for 
the first time, the son of my friend Starr King. It is 
not often that a boy inherits so much love. 

Sept. 6, 1880. — After many delays and disappoint- 
ments Mr. W. came to-day to tell me that the special 
officer who takes visitors to Chinatown was ready to wait 
upon me. If I had known the town as well this morn- 
ing as I do to-night I need not have sought for him. 

A little before the hour officer Duffield named, I went 
with Mr. W. to the Pine Street joss-house. Tliis is so 
much cleaner than those I saw afterward, that I think 
it must have been erected by the best class of the peo- 
ple, who still hold to the early faith. The better classes, 
that is the more educated classes of the Chinese nation, 
seem to have no faith of any sort. In my opinion con- 
tact with the Western world has done both Chinese and 
Japanese great injury in this respect. Both nations, 
who are the very opposite of scientific by constitution, 
now affect a scorn of all worship, and seem to think it 
only one manifestation of superstitious ignorance. 

You enter the joss-house from the street by rn ordina- 
ry door. Behind this, two enormous paper lanterns hang 
in a perfectly bare hall. Beyond, we crossed an open 
court-yard between houses. The walls on each side of 
it were hung with parallelograms of red paper covered 
with Chinese characters. These are the " accounts " of 
the worshippers, though for what they are supposed to 
owe money I could not learn. If the temple is, as is 
said, a refuge for the sick, that may explain this tax-list. 

Winding round the temple itself by a narrow bricked 



IGO MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

passage, we enter it on the side. The State faith 
in its purity did not provide for any priest, but the 
corruptions of the last ten centuries have introduced 
an attendant to whom it is common to apply the 
word. The first room I entered was a sort of vestry 
intended for his use, and filled with supplies for the 
temple service. The air was fragrant with sandal- wood. 
Painted paper cylinders about the size of a candle, filled 
with sandal-wood dust, were burning before the altar. 
On each side of the temple as you enter it are hung im- 
mense mottoes or prayers, in crimson and gold. Every 
ones knows how the inscription on the side of a stick 
of India ink looks. Magnify it a hundred times, and 
make it crimson where it is black, and you have the effect 
of these mottoes before you : they hang from the ceiling 
also. The long narrow room was divided into two or 
three courts by screens of carved wood, wrought in panels 
and reaching half-way up, as well as by banners mounted 
upon this, as if it were a balustrade. From the roof 
hang pretty ga3^-colored lanterns. The shrine was ar- 
ranged much like a Catholic shrine, only the deity was 
some canonized ruler or hero whom I found it im- 
possible to recognize. 

The panels of the carved screens which were next the 
floor were old and very beautiful, and so were some of the 
panels of lacquer and gold, and the falling lambrequins of 
old embroidery ; but the only very odd or striking thing 
was the image of the Dog Fo, with his scarlet mouth and 
tongue. This was everywhere repeated. There were two 
before each altar ; and on a sort of chancel rail, with a dog 
in the centre, there was on each side a great square candle- 
stick of cloisonne. In these were what our guide called 
" candles," but in a Chinese shop I afterward saw carved 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. IGl 

wood colored and gilded^n the same way, with only a tin 
cup set in the top to hold oil and a taper. These cost 
five dollars a pair. The true candles are immensely thick, 
carved in the wax itself, and so costly as only to be 
used on grand occasions. The crowning ornament 
which holds the cup is a dragon's head. When I asked 
the " priest " who the god upon the shrine was, I could 
get no intelligible answer. Several solar radiations in 
heavy gilt convinced me that it was essentially a State 
shrine. " He one God, same as Jesus Christ," was the 
steady reply to all questions ! 

Mr. Duffield served on police duty in the Chinese 
quarter for seven years and a half ; he is appealed to by 
the Chinese themselves when they want protection. He 
can take you to their gambling saloons, to the lowest 
form of lodging houses, where men push themselves feet 
foremost into their "pigeon holes," and into the subter- 
ranean labyrinths which I could enter only by putting 
on a man's dress, and where I would not go if he would 
take me. I did not find, however, that this man knew 
anything about the State worship or the Buddhist 
shrines, nor could he give any name to what he saw. 
For that reason I have been forced to do a good deal 
of hard work myself, of which I offer you the results. 

I suppose you may have seen some notices of the won- 
derful lectures of Terrien de Lacouperie in London last 
summer, which seem to indicate that the Chinese, the 
Chaldean, and perhaps the Egyptian are only offshoots 
of one original stock, which believed in one God, and 
from which the different nations separated at different 
eras, carrying with them the distinctive characteristics 
of the time at which each started out for itself. 

The most remarkable and touching thing about the 
11 



162 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

Chinese religion is the fact, which may be considered 
proven, that this people has worshipped one God for at 
least five thousand years. This monotheism encountered 
two dangers from the very beginning. First, the idola- 
tries which naturally grow out of the worship of the sun, 
moon, and stars, which worship has left traces in their 
ideagraphs or primitive hieroglyphs ; and, second, the 
system of divination, which shows itself also in the prim- 
itives. If it were not for the evidences thus offered, it 
would almost seem as if the Chinese people must have 
started from their Akkad home before the worship of the 
one God had seriously degenerated. It is very extra- 
ordinary that the Chinese have been able to keep mono- 
theism (the prominent element of the State religion) 
from the beoiunino- until now ; and in his last work Dr. 
Legge shows this conclusively from the ancient hiero- 
glyphic characters, without knowing apparently anything 
about the conclusions of Lacouperie. Yet his owm lec- 
tures must have been delivered before the Presbyterian 
College in London while those of Lacouperie were pass- 
ing through the press. In this way Dr. Legge has vin- 
dicated fully the personal use which he makes of the 
Chinese " heaven " in his translation of the Chinese clas- 
sics, — a use which has elicited some criticism. 

The Chinese themselves are is^norant of tlie oris^^in of 
many of tlieir own customs and the meaning of much 
of their own literature. Dr. Legge cannot explain why 
the Emperor must sacrifice to the " six honored ones," 
after offering his tribute to the "one god ; " but Lacouperie 
finds six inferior gods at Susa, directly after the chief 
deity ; and it was not only the Emperor Shun, but the 
magnates of Babylonia, who received provincial princes 
with the title of " pastors." 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 1G3 

Dr. Legge empliasizes the fact that only the Emperor 
of the Chinese in all the nation worshipped the Supreme 
Being, and believes that tlie fact that the people were 
forbidden to worship was fruitful of evil ; but it does not 
seem to have occurred to him that the leader of the 
"hundred families," or the first emiorants into China, 
might possibly have been a priest, who was accustomed 
to consider the solstitial sacrifice one of tlie functions 
of his caste, and that the prohibition might have been 
a matter of prudence in the beginning, — a sincere ef- 
fort to keep the original people to a simple faitli^ La- 
couperie finds a sort of hieroglyphic dictionary in the 
Yh King, which so puzzled Confucius, accompanied ap- 
parently by a vast amount of archasological information, 
— information which we are now as certain to possess 
within a few years as we were of the contents of the 
Egyptian stele, from the moment that we had mastered 
the Eosetta stone. 

I am very sorry that the great Egyptologist, Goodwin, 
died so soon after he went to China. I wanted him to 
find in the old mathematical and divining books, which 
have an evident relation to similar things in Egypt, a com- 
mon key to the origin of the two nations, and an indica- 
tion of the intellectual advancement of the people from 
which both must liave been an offshoot. The numeric for- 
malism of both countries is the same; and the cuneiform 
characters may have had an origin in that "cone" which 
stands for generative power in all the three nations, but 
not usually, as Lacouperie suggests, for tlie "genera- 
tor of fire." While records were considered sacred, the 
making of them fell naturally into the hands of the 
priests ; and nothing was more likely than the obscuring 
of hieroglyphics by the use of arbitrary symbols in the 



164 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

place of lines, in proportion as motives of cabalistic se- 
crecy prevailed over the instincts of pure religion. 

Yao divided his country into twelve provinces, and of 
their limits, productions, and manufactures the Yh will 
some day furnish an account. His system was only the 
duodenary feudal system in vogue at Susa. The "Chief 
of the Four Mountains " in China seems to reproduce 
the " King of the Four Eegions," one of the titles of the 
Chaldean sovereign ; and the signs for the four points of 
the compass are the same in Chinese and Akkadian. If 
Professor Sayer's "oblique-eyed population of Babylon" 
are soon to be proven close kindred to the Chinese, it 
seems rather hard that Baron Bunsen could not have 
lived to see what he so fully predicted. 

The Japanese are also an " oblique-eyed population," 
and whatever tends to explain the origin of the Chinese 
will partially explain the rise of this more intellectual 
and artistic people. I cannot help thinking of this when 
I find the religion of both nations called " the way," the 
monarchs of both peoples sun or heaven descended, and 
the Emperor of China offering his great sacrifices at the 
solstitial periods, while the sacred mirror in the shrine 
at Ise is only the emblem of the Sun-God's approach 
after the winter solstice. The secondary deities of both 
nations are found in the forces of Nature, and the reli- 
gions have been corrupted equally and at about the same 
period by Buddhist influences. 

A stranger in San Francisco, who has some pre-con- 
ceived ideas of the simplicity of the State religion, — mean- 
ing by that the religion of the ancients which Confucius 
" transmitted," — and who thinks to find in the worship of 
" ancestors " only a simple and ancient service in keep- 
ino- with a reverent and conservative life, would find 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 165 

himself somewhat puzzled if he entered a joss-house or 
attended a funeral. There is no one to tell him that 
not only has the old State religion been somewhat cor- 
rupted, but that in its ardor for organization the Celes- 
tial Empire has really affiliated with the impish Tao-ists. 

When we find that close beside the primitive symbol 
of Ti — the one absolute God — there are tw^o others 
pronounced shi and slmn, which refer to spirits in gen- 
eral, and which are almost if not quite as old, we see 
how easily the superstitions inherent in polytheistic 
worsliip would make their way with a people forbidden 
to pray to the one God for themselves. 

In spite of Professor Tide's positive assertion, Dr. 
Legge refuses to recognize pure animism, or a prepon- 
derating tendency to fetichism, in the State religion 
of Confncius. He finds in the early faith a true re- 
lio'ion, for which it is evident that he is liberal enou<][h 
to feel a sincere respect. At twenty-two hundred years 
before Christ he finds the Emperor Shun worship-^ 
ping every fifth year in the " four quarters " of the 
country, in a fashion which again reminds us of Chaldea, 
and which Dr. Legge insists was a pure worship of God, 
attended by a sacrificial recognition of the inferior 
powers supposed to be instruments of the divine gov- 
ernment. There was a worship of God for all, but tlie 
ruler of the State was its sole voice, — and a worship of 
ancestors for all, the head of each family officiating. 

In houses and temples, those familiar with Chinese 
customs will remember certain white tablets about the 
shape of an ordinary tomb-stone, but of various sizes. 
Upon these is written the character shdn dm, which 
means the " seat of the soul," and perhaps the name and 
age of the departed. This is set up before the wor- 
shipper in " ancestral " service, and fixes his attention 



166 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

as the abode of the spirit. The first prayer invokes the 
spirit; the last "escorts it on its departure." When the 
worship is over, this little bit of wood is no more sacred 
than any other. These tablets were sometimes carried 
to the field of battle, as the ark of the Israelites was 
brought into the camp. During the dynasty of Chan a 
living descendant of the same name took the place of 
the tablet, as the vehicle of the ancestral spirit. This 
change probably originated in a truly spirituah perception 
of the thing desired ; but it was only a fashion, and passed 
away. Those of us who have had the great privilege of 
praying with Theodore Parker, and remember how he 
bowed in spirit before the " Father and Mother " of us 
all, not knowing in what other way to express his sense 
of the divine tenderness, cannot fail to be interested to 
know that the same transcendental ruler of the Chan 
dynasty called God the " father and mother " of crea- 
tures, as the Emperor was the " father and mother " of 
his people ! 

The Emperor, worsliipping for his race, made his of- 
ferings at the summer and winter solstice. These offer- 
ings were tributes of love and duty merely, and neither 
propitiatory nor vicarious, but attended with music and 
dancing from the beginning ; and the period of observ- 
ance naturally connects them with the original sun- 
worship of Central Asia. 

It seems, too, as if the " bull " had a good deal to do 
with this solstitial service, for seven hundred years be- 
fore Christ a court poet wrote, — 

" In autiinm comes the autumnal rite 
With bulls, whose horns in summer bright 
Were capped with care, — one of them white." 

" And, see, they place the goblet full, 
In figure fashioned as a bull." 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 167 

From the first the Chinese seem to have held the 
goodness of human nature as a tenet ; and Dr. Legge 
admits that Mencius anticipated the statements of But- 
ler, and that two hundred years before Moses was born 
T'ang ascended the throne and prochiimed the essential 
goodness of human nature. That the Chinese believed 
in immortality he admits ; but Confucius did not en- 
courage precise views of a subject he did not himself 
understand. Dr. Legge points out very emphatically 
that the Emperor cannot be called a ''high priest," since 
there are no priests in China. It does not seem to have 
occurred to him that the first ruler might have wished 
to abolish a priestly class as Moses certainly did, and 
yet that in his own person he might have furnished 
an historic precedent for the priestly functions of the 
emperor. • 

It will be clear to you that, wdth all its openness to 
deterioration, the popular ancestral worship could never 
be responsible for what I have found in California. It 
could not explain the figures in the temples, the propi- 
tiations of the evil one, or the sale of anuilets ; neither 
could Buddhism pure and simple. I w^as therefore 
compelled to investigate the perplexing subject of Tao- 
ism. Well was it for me that just as the necessity 
arose I was able to control Dr. Legge's last publication, 
to talk with Basil Hall Chamberlain, and to read the 
appendix to ]\Iiss Bird's " Letters from Japan." 

In China Tao-ism is the name of a very transcenden- 
tal philosopliy of which Lao-tsze was the chief exponent. 
This is as mystic as Kant or Concord could desire. It 
is also the name of a very low order of worship, — a 
polytheistic religion of which this same philosopher is 
the chief god ; a religion sustained by magic and incan- 



168 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

tations, in which the worship of evil forces and a belief 
in transmigration are united to a faith in purgatory and 
hell, and which last is painted on the temple walls in 
an apartment called by foreigners "The Chamber of 
Horrors." 

It will seem to you that this is hard enough to under- 
stand, but it is made still harder by the fact that this 
worship has for the last thousand years put on many 
of the external shows of Buddhism. Dr. Legge him- 
self does not seem to understand how this system 
of magic could have arisen from a super-spiritual 
philosophy ; but it seems to me a very simple thing. 
Such a philosophy entrusted to wholly ignorant people, 
to whom it is by its nature unintelligible, naturally 
degenerates into precisely this. What can a Chi- 
nese csolie make of a philosopher who wants him " to 
taste without knowing the flavor " ? What can he 
think of a leader who says, " The common people are 
full of discrimination : I alone have none," — or who tells 
him that he does not know the name of the mother of 
all things, but will call her " the Way " ? 

To all the other puzzles is added the fact that the 
Tao-ists are acknowledged by the State as the disciples 
of Confucius are ; and it is a common saying that " what- 
ever disorder afflicts the empire, the Changs and the 
Kings have no occasion to be disturbed," — the Changs 
being the leaders of the Tao-ists. 

Since A. D. 1015 the chief of the Tao-ists has had 
large tracts of laud near Lung-hu, which were granted 
as a perpetual endowment. 

It was not till after the beginning of the Christian 
era that the philosophy degenerated into a system of 
magic, although a great deal of superstition is evident 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 1G9 

in tlie writings of the Tao-ist philosopher, Lieh-tsze, 
three centuries before it. 

You will remember that when I entered the joss- 
house in Pine Street I found there three seated images. 
It is the only spot I have found which has reminded me 
of a Buddhist temple, but the attendant asserted that it 
was not Buddhist, and pointing to the chief figure, he as- 
serted that it was '' all the same as " my Jesus ! These 
three figures I now lind to be the " Three Holy Ones of 
the Tao-ists." The chief of the three who is " all the 
same as Jesus " is Lao-tsze himself. The next is " Hin 
Hwang," a magician of the Chang family, who takes 
charge of all earthly affairs ; and the third is Chaos or 
Confusion, and I do not think it is at all strange that 
he should be worshipped in this category ! 

It was probably about the year 65 that the influences 
of Buddhism took hold of a loose bundle of superstitions, 
and helped to precipitate from them this definite form, 
Confucius saw the whole thing coming, and said, like 
St. Paul, " Respect the spirits and keep aloof from them." 
In spite of the assertion that there are no priests in China, 
the Chang family hold a predominant relation to the 
Tao-ists and wear upon their heads a sort of badge 
made of wood, which Dr. Legge calls the " yellow top." 
Every one of this family is a magician ; and it was one of 
them who came to tlie assistance of the Emperor and 
filled the stage with wraiths and half invisible crea- 
tures, in the play which I saw at the " Gold Cinnamon 
Garden." 1 The presence of inferior deputies of this 
family can alone account for the sale of amulets and 
charms in San Francisco. The dread of spirits is both 
the Chinaman's nightmare and his waking horror, and 

1 See p. 373-379. 



170 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

by pandering to this the "yellow tops" maintain their 
sway. They teach a belief in three souls, — one which 
clings to the corpse ; one in the ancestral tablet ; and 
one which passes into purgatory. An account of this 
purgatory may be found in "Strange Stories from a 
Chinese Studio/' by Herbert A. Giles, pubHshed in 
London only this year. The purgatory involves trans- 
migration, and in it bones are beaten, bodies scorched, 
flesh is scalded with hot oil, and tongues are pulled 
out ! The whole list of horrors has a very Magian 
sound. If by repentance a creature escapes punish- 
ment, by five virtuous acts it earns a reward ; if it be a 
woman, she shall be born as a man ! Is there not some 
innocent crime one might commit to escape that ? 

The mystical words of Lao-tsze, as Dr. Legge says, 
conducted this forlorn people to the brink of a great 
prospect, where they locked down upon a sea of mist. 
I think Julien was quite right when he wrote of the 
Tao, " II est un etre confus." It was never infinite, but 
sadly limited by the weakness and dim-sigh tedness of its 
prophet. For, after all, we must judge of the real power 
of a philosophy or a religion by its concrete results. 

The deity whom I commonly found enthroned in the 
joss-house was Kar Quon ; but none of the educated 
Chinese know about him. Kwang Kung, the Chinese 
Mars, is evidently quite another person. I found in the 
temples offerings of food on wooden trays, and what the 
Japs call gohei, — slender rods fringed with white paper, 
intended in Japan to attract the rays of the Divine 
Sun. I could not find out their supposed use in San 
Francisco. 

The god is supposed to be in the temple ; the wor- 
shipper claps liis hands to " attract his attention ! " but 



MY FIKST HOLIDAY. 171 

there is no service. He buys long paper tubes filled witli 
the sweet dust of the sandal-wood, and burns them before 
the images. The Dog Fo is everywhere a creature who 
seems to be propitiated. At the funerals the living and 
tlie dead are supposed to eat together, although the 
visible food is sold again for strangers to eat. The tab- 
lets in this case are fetiches, for a lamp is kept burning 
before each as long as the bereaved relative can pay for 
it. Gilded paper is scattered at the funerals to propiti- 
ate the devil. 

One anomaly I cannot understand. In Japan the num- 
ber of household gods is almost infinite, and in every 
house there is a " god shelf," which we should probably 
translate "altar" if we respected the faith. On it is a 
temple, a tablet, the household gods, oblations of food and 
flowers, and a burning lamp. Something like this is to 
be found in many Chinese homes in San Francisco ; and 
why ? Dr. Legge does not allude to any such custom. 

I do not undertake to go into the philosophy of Lao-tsze; 
that you can easily read up for yourself. But until this 
last little book of Dr. Legge's was issued, it was almost 
impossible to find out anything about this system of 
magic. The Chinese in San Francisco show a o-reat 
dread of death. They do not like to be in a house v. iiere 
death occurs. If they foresee it they will leave the best 
employer. They expect it to be averted by charms and 
prayers, and will entreat their employers to have re- 
course to them when the physician fails. I suppose no 
rational account of this could be given ; but I never saw 
it alluded to. 

From the City Hall we went through the famous Plaza, 
where in the early days so many pronunciamentos were 
made, and so many executions took place. It is now a 



172 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

pretty city square, with trees, fountains, and an iron rail, 
which last we may suppose to typify the decent restraints 
of law. The old Post-office and other buildiDgs which 
surround it now swarm with Chinamen, who make ev- 
erything untenantable by any other nationality. Duf- 
field took us first to a joss-house, but it was not so 
neat or attractive as the one I have described. He as- 
serted that from the time these shrines are first erected 
they are never cleaned. I felt it necessary to raise my 
dress from the floor, but the beautiful marble stairways 
of the Capitol are far more untidy. As we passed 
through the streets we were the objects of undisguised 
curiosity, freely indulged. The men were dirty and 
wretched beyond conception, and swarmed from narrow 
alleys liardly ten feet broad, where they crouched cook- 
ing or eating in doorways. On one street we stopped 
before a stall, where the officer informed me that every- 
thing exposed for sale was stolen. He took up what 
looked like a cheap fan, opened it, and displayed a long 
knife which could easily deal a fatal blow. Laws against 
the wearing of arms might be easily evaded by this fan 
in a workman's belt. 

A great many bright-looking girls of ten or twelve 
were running about the streets. These do all the drudg- 
ery of the quarter, and are in training for prostitution 
if attractive enough. They are sold when quite young 
for two hundred dollars or more, and later for four hund- 
red. Prostitutes crossed our path at every step. Some 
of them in quite common clothes had their hair so su- 
perbly dressed as to attract my attention. It was bound 
and fastened with elegant daggers or bodkins. I believe 
the hair is dressed only once a week. Miss Bird thinks 
the uvario japonica is used to clean and dress the hair; 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 173 

but here it is a bandoline made from a Sapinda, popu- 
larly called soap-wort. It glazes the hair to the point 
of brittleness and would certainly break it all up if the 
Chinese women lay on soft pillows as we do. Now and 
then one of these women passed us, swollen with disease 
or devoured with ulceration. I saw one case of elephant- 
iasis, which I might not have guessed had I not seen it 
before, and one or two of evident leprosy. The whole 
population, as I moved among it, gave me an extraor- 
dinary conviction of great physical depression and gen- 
eral disease. At last we came to the joss-house of one 
of the commercial com^^anies. This special company 
claims to be a sort of masonic society, but is actually an 
association working for the mutual protection of thieves 
and assassins. The Chinaman whom Duflield called to 
guide me through it is a man who is supposed to be a 
frequent assassin, and who committed tw^o murders in a 
street brawl a few weeks ago. He is out of prison on 
three thousand dollars bail, and evidently has no idea of 
sufferings for his crime. 

o 

On the first floor was a sort of trading-room with mot- 
toes on the wall, a silk panel bearing the picture of the 
usual demi-god, attended by two women. I made a fresh 
attempt to get at the name, but in vain. On the next 
floor was a joss-house, and here I repeated my question. 
The murderer shook his head and said, "He good man ; he 
die ; take care of you, me, and all folks not bad ;" but I 
suspected it was just the other way, and was told after- 
ward that this was a place where the " dangerous clas- 
ses" sought protection for their misdeeds. As the mur- 
derer spoke he drew his finger across his .throat with a 
disagreeable guzzle, which perhaps indicated that this 
was the god of the assassin. A piazza built out from 



174 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

this room gave us a fine view of the Bay. Banners, 
paper lanterns, and pots of flowers made it look exactly 
like a piazza on a tea-tray. 

We went next to the Jackson Street joss-house, the 
oldest in the city. In the outer room we found three 
shrines exactly like that I have described, excei)t that 
these were much more splendid in decoration : gold and 
vermilion blazed everywhere. 

Behind tlie large central figure of the " good man " 
was a long, narrow room with a shrine at each end, 
but without any screens. Here the women come to 
worship. At the lower end of this room was a very 
plain shrine with the usual deity, attended by a large 
Dog Fo covered with crimped paper or crape, made to re- 
semble curled hair, — a most curious toy. At the upper 
end was the image of a truly fine-looking woman. On 
the dirty floor, half-way between the two, was a cheap 
tablet of white card-board, with a taper burning before 
it. Tliis was the remnant of a late funeral service. To 
this place, after the funeral, the women related to a dead 
Chinaman come to have a sort of mass said for his soul. 
They are clad in white, and execute a sort of dance, 
leaving the taper alight when they go away. 

This mass never costs less than forty dollars. Fortu- 
nately the attendant was able to tell me the story of the 
woman on the shrine. She is Kwanyin, goddess of 
mercy, and was the child of poor parents who lived 
three thousand seven hundred years ago. Her family 
wished to sell her to a lover, which meant prostitution, 
and she refused to go. They' beat her cruelly. She 
took refuge with the Emperor, who, finding her divinely 
beautiful, married her. According to Chinese etiquette, 
when she, an inferior, was raised to the throne, all her 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 175 

family should have been beheaded to guard against pos- 
sible disgrace. But she forgave them all the cruel wrong 
to which they had been a party, and pleaded against 
the custom, until the Emperor found for each one a po- 
sition of trust. 

This is the only place where women can worship 
publicly. The joss-houses are very small, for there is 
no " hour of prayer " and no congregation. Each wor- 
shipper goes when he feels the need. Some extra fine 
sandal-dust tapers were given me here, and a square of 
silk paper with a gilded centre, which represents a 
prayer, — or, as some say, the money paid for a prayer. 

Next we went to a Chinese market, where we saw 
bushels of dried fish so small that each looked like a 
silver thread, and many less pleasant things. There 
was something that resembled bunches of slender string 
beans about fourteen inches long, growing from one 
common stem ; a long root that looked precisely like 
a string of small sausages washed with gamboge, for it 
was girt in at regular intervals ; and there was one 
sweet, pure-looking vegetable, white as the driven snow, 
five or six inches in diameter and as long as one's fore- 
arm, which I instinctively called a radish ! The Jap- 
anese call the food prepared from it daikon ; and it 
is even more offensive to the untrained nostril than the 
vilest saucr-kraut. Miss Bird calls it, as I did, HapJuums 
Sativus ; but the botanists do not accept the name, and 
think it some other Baphamts. The root is dried and 
also pickled in brine filled with bran, whicli of course 
occasions fermentation. When it has lain in this three 
months it is taken out and stewed, the odor driving 
every civilized being out of the house. Whoever has 
ever left the last radish of the spring too long in a glass 



176 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

of water can guess what this odor is like. I saw the Li 
Chi and the bacclmntic nut, which looks like a goat's 
head with two long horns, which is sometimes called 
"sea-chestnut." Then there were queer little bricks 
of a bright-yellow color stamped in India ink, with tlie 
maker's name in larqe letters. These are a sort of muf- 
fin made of beans boiled to a stiff paste, with sugar and 
Carrageen moss ! At tlie far end of the shop, where all 
these abominations were to be bought, was a rough 
counter at wdiich half-a-dozen Celestials w^ere stolidly 
eating with cliop-sticks, every mouthful bearing witness 
to great manual dexterity. 

On one side of this street was a three-storeyed build- 
ing, with as many piazzas gaily decorated in colors and 
with paper lanterns. It was a restaurant. We entered 
through a vile baker's shop, entirely open to the street 
on the front side. Eound cakes, weighing each almost 
a pound, covered the counters on every side. They 
looked like a very plump Chater's muffin, and contained 
chopped fat and curry. On the next floor was a very 
bare eating-room for the common customer, and above 
that another, with finely carved ebony chairs and small 
richly wrought tea-tables with marble tops, such as we 
often put into our drawing-rooms. Cheap pictures in 
crape adorned the recesses, where hard couches wxre 
spread with carpets and pillows, that the guests may 
retire to smoke opium. Different qualities of tea, from 
the finest " mandarin " down to leaves which have been 
twice dried, are served on these three floors. 

We went next to a butcher's, where we saw a whole 
hog prepared for roasting. This is baked slowly in a 
sort of stone w^ell, heated from above and below, hav- 
ing a cover for coals like our old Dutch oven, only of 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 177 

course much larger. In tlie doorway sat a man eating 
soup out of three different bowls with one pair of chop- 
sticks, and we all stood and looked at him till, he 
laughed ! I had never thought of him as human until 
that moment ! He bore tlie inspection in a shame-faced 
but good-humored way. In the cellar-ways we saw 
groups of gamblers, with unimaginable horrors in their 
rear. I never sliall forget the narrow alleys which I 
threaded amid a crowd of silent figures. The stealthi- 
ness of the Chinese makes him unendurable ; I would 
rather every joint bend with the report of a cannon. 

I went into some shops. My disposition to purchase 
was thwarted by the fact that the traders could not even 
talk ''pigeon English" ! I bought a box, some harlequins, 
and some women's hairpins of opaque glass, handsomely 
cut in imitation of jade. Things were sold at fancy prices. 
They have a bulb for sale, which is I think the narcissus. 
They call it the " New Year's lily," and it bears the same 
relation to their New Year that the holly does to our 
Christmas. To offer it to a friend is to say, " Good luck, 
and a happy New Year ! " A rich man died and left 
three sons. The two older cheated the younger and gave 
him no share of the money, only a rocky farm. It would 
yield nothing; and, while sorely troubled, the lad fell 
asleep and dreamed that the "Great Heaven" had taken 
pity on him. He was told to go out in the morning and 
dig for gold. He found no gold, only thousands upon 
thousands of little bulbs, which sold readily and brought 
him " good luck." 

We made two calls this afternoon, — one on Miss 0. 
at Mr. B.'s, where we saw some very rare and beautiful 
articles from Japan ; among them an immense incense- 
burner from an old Buddhist temple, which bore the 

12 



178 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

crest of both the Mikado and the Tycoon, which is 
something I never saw before. The other was on Mrs. 
A., one of my son's old friends, the widow of our late 
minister to China. 

Her story is another proof of the inadequate protection 
afforded to women by our Government. Her husband 
made a Koman Catholic his executor, without under- 
standing that he was a Jesuit. This man appropriated 
all her ready money, and applied to the courts for leave 
to sell the. real estate. Then Mrs. A. interposed ; leave 
was not granted. Mr. A.'s private secretary sold the 
most valuable personal property and cheated her out of 
the proceeds. As she cannot yet sell her real estate she 
is extremely poor, and cannot even go home to her East- 
ern friends. 

In the evening I went to the public meeting of the 
Academy of Sciences. The building in which the Acad- 
emy meets is dirty, dreary, and forlorn, — enough to put 
a wet blanket on the most shining light. There were a 
great many interesting things told, but every member 
apparently spoke with the greatest reluctance and with- 
out the slightest interest in what he was saying. 

There was something about California pines, a paper 
about ray and cuttle fish, and an acknowledgment of 
the reception of a piece of bees-wax from Sitka, — 
part of the cargo of a Japanese vessel wrecked there 
in 1833. Three survivors of this wreck were picked 
up by the Hudson Bay Company and carried to 
China. They were refused permission to return to 
Japan by the Government, to whom their destitute 
condition was referred. Having been adopted by Gutz- 
laff they finally made their way in disguise to a small, 
uninhabited Japanese island, through a part of Siberia ; 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 179 

and, pleading a wreck, were taken off by some fishermen. 
By keeping silence over their adventures, they probably 
eluded the death penalty pronounced at that time on all 
travelled Japs ! 

San Francisco, Sept. 8, 1880. — "And he wist not 
that his face shone ! " — these were the words w^hich 
flashed across my mind as I turned away from Starr 
King's church last Saturday. If anything can recon- 
cile the human soul to sharp and unusual sorrows, it 
must be the consciousness that it has so responded to 
the divine touch as to become in an unwonted degree 
the medium of divine power to other bereaved or har- 
assed creatures. It is in this way that the hearts of a 
parish come truly near to its minister, and a foundation 
is honestly laid for the kingdom of God on earth. In the 
Sunday-school room I found about tliree hundred souls, 
countinf' teachers and children ; and their faces seemed 
so homelike that I half fancied myself in Boston while 
I spoke to them. The superintendent, Mr. Murdoch, 
was once a pupil in our old Indiana Place Chapel. 

A quarter of a century ago, before Mr. Hayward had 
left any mone}- to the India mission, and at intervals 
ever since, I have heard a great deal said about the folly 
of sending preachers to tlie heathen, and the great need 
of money for " home missions." I wonder where the 
" home mission " is. Is it in my neighbor's kitchen, at 
Five Points, among the negroes of the exodus, or among 
the untaught " white trash " still roaming the highlands 
of our Southern States ? 

Not much is doing in these directions by Unitarians ; 
3^et as I have come across the continent my very soul 
cries out bitterly, "If my people really believe, why do 



180 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

they not send out their prophets to take possession of 
the land ? " Where are you, young men, who ouglit to 
be filling these Western pulpits ? After the magnificent 
opening which Starr King made for you here, the truth 
should have risen new-born on these Western shores ! 
When I say " pulpit," I do not mean a massive struct- 
ure of wood and drapery, but simply a place to preach, 
— a place which would widen before a young man's 
powerful plea until it might embrace a bishopric. 

We all of us heard a while ago that Eev. E. P. 
Tenney, the author of "Coronation," had been made 
President of Colorado College. Because of his associa-" 
tions, we were inclined to think it must be a Congrega- 
tional institution; but on examination we find that it is 
simply Christian, asking no doctrinal pledges on the 
part of any one connected with it. What it is doing, 
in an absolutely silent way, here in the West, none of 
us have guessed. It is entering all the empty vineyards, 
while we stand talking. When the Faculty find a field 
untilled, they look about for a person who is qualified to 
do the work needed. As soon as he can be reached, he 
is created a professor of the college, salaried, and sent to 
his work. In many ways the liberal thinker has a better 
chance to reach the lowest scale of humanity than the 
evangelical preacher. Why is he not awake to his 
opportunity ? 

Few of our people, T think, know what manner of 
man the Leadville miner is. Last year at this time, it 
is said, not a woman had ever been seen in the streets 
of that direful place. Now a few, connected by blood 
or interest with what is going on there, may be traced 
on their isolated path. And yet if a few could go, for 
higher reasons, who would understand the whole thing ! 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 181 

I could tell terrible stories of poisonous fumes from the 
suieltiiig furnaces, of barrels of drinking water stand- 
ing in the sun till they go putrid, of drains that do not 
exist, or which exist only to poison a well or a sleeping- 
room; but if I could take any dear New England 
woman into the balcony of the Clarendon House, and 
let her look down upon the great human tide that 
streams through the Leadville Street, she would not be 
there thirty minutes before she would know that a far 
more dangerous current than any I have named sets 
down that lofty valley, ten thousand feet above the sea, 
and that nowhere in our broad land can her own chil- 
dren wholly escape its influence. Let her go out into 
Chestnut Street after dark, and look into the windows 
of the bar-rooms, gambling hells, and dance saloons. 
What goes on in such places is everywhere else curtained 
in from the prying eyes of night itself. Here the bright 
light streams out from their horrid precincts, to tempt 
by a cheerful ray whatever young lad or lass may lean 
against the pane. 

If I were a young man, able to endure the exposures 
of life, and able to raise a small sum among friends 
who would trust me, I would go straight to Leadville. 
I would build a clean shanty close to the main street. 
I would keep its little enclosure free from the disgust- 
ing litter that taints the town, and at night I would 
have hot coffee and a biscuit, and a few pleasant pictures 
and a good paper or book, ready for any one who should 
come. 

There the wedge should enter. A little step forward 
was taken the other day, when four prominent traders 
signed a pledge to close their places of business on 
Sundays, and so to rescue a few hours for quietness. 



182 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

Whoever violates this pledge is to give two hundred 
dollars for the benefit of the town. 

" Inspiration is common-sense," wrote Brigham Young 
in his autobiography, which I held in my hand the 
other day. Taking these words for a text, how much 
a Unitarian might do for his people ! Is there not 
a noble field for the Church there ? He who would 
go must be young enough to be enthusiastic, and 
old enough to know where to seek the instruction 
which will make him wise in practical matters. All 
the needs df life can be satisfied here at less expense 
than in the Eastern States, and a hay-field is as good as 
a gold mine. If all Christians had taught what they 
professed to believe as earnestly as Brigham Young did, 
there would not have been much room in the world for 
the fanatic, the polygamist, or the avenger of blood. 
But, thank God ! men must grow as well as trees, and 
even in Salt Lake valley and San Francisco streets the 
old ligatures will burst. 

At the Art school, under Virgil Williams, I find good 
drawings and excellent models, but unfortunately the 
school will not be in session while I am here. I was 
sliown also a fine, full-length figure of a woman, which 
was found in a rural drinking saloon out here, and is 
supposed to be by Eubens. Whoever painted it, painted 
it well, and it is evidently very old. 

The best picture shop here is kept by Mr. Morris. 
He imports many very costly genre pictures, and shows 
very good California work, especially in the direction 
of flower-painting in oils. A little picture of an old 
grandmother reciting Mother Goose, and another of a 
mother picking out the stories from the old tiles about 
a mantelpiece pleased me. Mr. Morris went with me 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 183 

to see Bradford's pictures. They all represent the same 
scenes under the midnight sun, and the lurid mixture 
of red and blue in them was not pleasant. I should 
like to see one of them by itself against a neutral 
tinted wall. Pictures often put each other out. 

Then I went to Mission Street in search of articles 
made of California woods. After I had gone to bed, 
there came a telegram from Dr. Buckel asking me to 
assist at Mrs. Hayes's reception at Oakland. We had 
already exchanged three or four messages on the sub- 
ject, on account of the uncertainty of the Presidential 
plan. I was much struck by the thoughtful kind- 
ness with which Dr. Buckel followed the matter up. 

San Francisco y Sept. 9, 1880. — Very early this morning 
we went through crowded streets to Oakland. We met 
Senator and Mrs. Sargent on the ferry-boat. As our 
message gave us absolutely no directions for the day, we 
thought it best to go to Mrs. Sherman's witli the Sargents, 
and try to fmd Dr. Buckel. It was like meeting an old 
friend to see Mrs. Sherman, — slie is so like our dear 
Mrs. S., in Buffalo. We were received with the kind- 
est courtesy, and Mr. Sherman walked with us to the 
Doctor's little house. There another friend of Dr. 
Tyng's — Dr. Follansbie — received us, and did all she 
could to make us comfortable. After a light lunch, it 
was suggested that as we had been invited to go back to 
the Shermans, we had better go and get a glimpse of the 
procession. The ladies of the President's party were 
lunching there ; and, in the pleasant company of Mrs. 
Hayes, Miss Eachel Sherman, Mrs. Audenried, Mrs. 
Hewin, and Mrs. Mitchel, we soon forgot all about 
processions. This lunch w^as a real, thoughtful kind- 



184 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

ness on the part of Mrs. Sherman, since it enabled 
the ladies to rest quietly before going on to the recep- 
tion. 

This reception was given by the Ebell Society of 
Oakland. There was once, as I understand, a certain 
Dr. Ebell here, who was in the habit of taking parties 
of young ladies to Europe. They often found them- 
selves unprepared to enjoy what they saw ; and, in 
accordance with a wish of his, societies were formed 
for study, all through the State, to which his name was 
given. The Ebell Society of Oakland holds a monthly 
meeting at which papers are read. I believe it owes a 
good deal to Dr. Buckel ; and, as I suppose, it- is the 
best specimen of woman's work in California. I very 
much regret that it will hold no regular meeting during 
my stay. I find it everywhere spoken of with interest 
and pride, and I hoped Dr. Buckel would call a special 
meeting for my benefit ; but the State Fair, and the 
uncertain and delayed reception to Mrs. Hayes com- 
plicated matters so that she thought it impossible. The 
separate members I shall meet to-day. 

Private carriages met us at Mrs. Sherman's to take 
the party to Mrs. Hewes's, where the reception oc- 
jcurs. One was most generously provided for myself 
and my daughter ; and it carried us to a house, the con- 
ventional London suburban villa, situated in limited 
grounds, whicli slope, however, to the very edge of Lake 
Merritt. There are half-a-dozen pleasant rooms on the 
first floor of this house connecting with one another; 
and on the second, a picture gallery and library. The 
front hall was furnished in a charming way, with 
chairs gracefully made of the horns and skin of the 
Siberian goat. The walls of all the rooms were covered 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 185 

with copies of the old masters. I do not suppose 
the reception was hekl at this house because it was 
the most elegant in Oakland, but because Mrs. H. 
is a member of the Ebell Society, and because the 
family feel a sincere interest in the work Mrs. Hayes 
is doing. The society had decorated the whole house 
in the most charming way with flowers and ferns, care- 
fully toned to the general effect. The hour that elapsed 
before the guests arrived was spent in looking at tlie 
flowers, the pictures, and the lovely Swiss' view at the 
back of the house. 

My heart warmed more than ever to Mrs. Hayes, as, 
wearied with her long journey, and in the deep mourn- 
ing dress she wears for her only brother, she went from 
one room to another, listening and enjoying with genu- 
ine interest. This is what has won the heart of the 
people. She is not civil, but cordial ; not attentive, l)ut 
interested. She was first received by her invalid host- 
ess, and then we all went through the library to the 
upper piazza. Fresh as she was from Lake Tahoe, 
Lake Merritt could not have seemed imposing to Mrs. 
Hayes ; but to me it was truly lovely. The green turf 
sloped to the water's edge. Live oak and maple trees 
were in the foreground, and beyond the still lake rose 
the lofty peaks of the coast range. 

It suggested Switzerland, with an altogether lovely 
effect. I believe Lake Merritt is an artificial lake, but 
if it was made for commercial reasons it certainly adds 
greatly to the charms of Oakland. On the lower piazza 
an elegant collation was laid ; but, as the party had 
lunched at Mrs. Sherman's, all further refreshment was 
declined. After this was once said not a motion was 
made toward the beautifully-laid table; and this rare 



186 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

good breeding pleased me. In a bend of the piazza a 
magnificent pyramid of fruit had been erected. Grapes 
drooped from its edge, and melons, peaches, plums, and 
pears mingled their superb colors in the pile. But no 
one disturbed them. So far, I have eaten less fruit in 
California than I ever ate in the same number of days. 
Eeason, that the fruit which goes to market seems made 
for the eye only. 

When the whole thing was about half over, I was 
drawn away from a pleasant talk and stroll with Miss 
Sherman into a comparatively unoccupied room, and in- 
troduced to about fifty people, half of them being gentle- 
men connected with the university at Berkeley. 

After all was done we drove back to Dr. Buckel's. 
On account of the State Fair and the presence of Mrs. 
Hayes a great many active and interesting women were 
in town. Many of them, I suppose, are corresponding 
members of the Ebell Society. For this reason Dr. 
Buckel and her friends offered me a reception at the 
Blake House this evening, and there I met most pleas- 
antly about sixty ladies. Almost every subject of inter- 
est to women was brought up, and every woman present 
seemed to have her own special work. Eepresentative 
women were there from distant parts of the State; and 
among those who came over from San Francisco was 
Miss Emma Marvoedel, who brought letters to me in 
Boston when she first came from Europe, and who has 
now a charmin!:^ KinderQ;arten on Franklin Street. Sev- 
eral gentlemen were present, and teased us very kindly 
about our schemes. I have seldom been in an assembly 
that pleased me more. It was like many that were held 
in Boston thirty years ago, but its like could hardly be 
found there now. Its atmosphere did not so much in- 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 187 

dicate what was intellectual or literary as common sense, 
practical ability, and wise activity. 

A Mrs. Condit, engaged as a missionary in the Chinese 
quarter, offered to take me into the Chinese homes, and 
I do hope I shall have time to go. 

The sun and the moon have dropped perpendicular 
rays upon us almost every day for a week, but not once 
have I been able to see across the Bay. 

Sept. 10, 1880. — I went to-day to the rooms of the 
Olympic Club. This consists of four hundred of the 
finest young men in town, most of whom have bodies 
so finely developed that it is a pleasure to look at 
them. I am also told that these young men are among 
the most " fashionable," but as they are not allowed one 
drop of wine or beer I have to pause over the state- 
ment. The rooms are the very best. Everything is 
provided toward gymnastic exercises, and no drink- 
ing or gambling is allowed on the premises. Draw- 
ing-rooms, reading-rooms, billiard-rooms, dressing-rooms, 
and bathing- rooms seem to revolve about the great 
gymnastic hall. The bathing-rooms are adapted to the 
supposed or real needs of gymnasts, and have showers 
and douches that may be used on every part of the 
body. 

To-night I went again to the Mechanics' Fair, as I had 
some purchases to make. The evening was far gone 
when music and bells announced the arrival of the very 
uncertain Presidential party, w^hom no one now expected. 
Poor Miss Marvoedel was in despair. She had at first 
been promised by some very nnwise official that Mrs. 
Hayes should certainly visit her pretty Kindergarten. 
Inspired by that hope, some one wrote some verses of 



188 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

greeting for the brightest little girl to recite to Mrs. 
Hayes, and every child prepared a specimen of her 
work, which was tied into a fanciful little book. Im- 
agine the despair of the children, when, after all this, 
they were coolly told that " Mrs. Hayes would have no 
time for Kindergartens ! " 

Miss Marvoedel has her section at the Fair, and the un- 
wise but tender heart of somebody inclined him to prom- 
ise that Mrs. Hayes should certainly pause there to speak 
to Miss Emma and receive the children's book. It was 
very soon apparent that even this would not hajDpen ; so 
I tucked my bewildered little friend undel: my arm and 
hurried away to the Tropical Garden, where Mrs. Hayes 
was looking at fountains in crimson, orange, and purple 
light. As soon as the procession moved on I took the 
little book from its timid and speechless possessor and 
put it into Mrs. Hayes's hand. I did think my Presi- 
dentess an angel when she smiled and responded. But 
"Oh, what a bold woman !" was all the reward that I 
got from my overwhelmed little Belgian ! 

Sept. 11, 1880. — I went this afternoon to the rooms 
of the Chinese consul; but he had gone home to pre- 
pare for General McDowell's Presidential reception. 
The vice-consul, in an elegant drapery of black velvet, 
purple brocade, and white silk, pooh-poohed the whole 
matter of the relii^-ion of the Chinese, about which I 
went to inquire. He said they worshipped stick or 
stone, — anything, anybody ! To w^hich I replied in- 
dignantly that it was quite evident that he never en- 
tered their temples ; for in all the joss-houses in San 
Francisco it was quite clear that only one hero was wor- 
shipped. I asked him why his people were so unwill- 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 189 

ing to answer very simple questions about tlieir customs. 
To which he replied that they had no ideas ! I asked 
him why it was necessary for sensible people to talk to 
them in " pigeon English," and he said again, "They have 
no ideas." Say, " Light fire, other room," and a man will 
go and do it; tell him to take up the kindling and go in- 
to the other room and light a fire, and he will stand still 
bewildered. The connecting links of a sentence mean 
nothing to him. It is not uncommon for a Chinese to 
say to a new mistress, without the slightest intentional 
disrespect, " You talkee too much ! " They know most 
of the words which communicate facts. 

I am much struck by the inarticulate character of 
their tongue. The vice-consul thought Mr. Bee would 
give me an interpreter wdien I come back from the 
South. 

I then went to the Protestant Episcopal Mission, 
where the native teacher gave me the name of Kar 
Quon as that of the popular deity. The joss-houses look 
far more like Roman Catholic shrines than Buddhist 
temples, but there is no doubt that they are simply 
Tao-ist as they exist to-day. 

We went to the theatre which the Presidential party 
attended, to see Ninon. The house is small and gaily 
decorated. The acting was very fine, but the. play most 
unfortunately chosen, if the object were to refresh the 
travelling party. It was a story of Marat and the 
French Revolution, and more than once the stage was 
filled by a blood-thirsty mob, w^hich w^as altogether too 
well presented. 

Sept. 12, 1880. — A sermon full of vital power from 
Dr. Stebbins. As I came home I passed many groups 



190 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

of much painted Chinese women standing at a street 
corner under the charge of two old men. As I stood 
looking at them, I thought what a pleasant family story 
I could have imagined of these young creatures, if there 
had been no one to tell me that these men were two 
" procurers " advertising their last arrivals at the street 
corners. 

A Eesum^. 

The things to be found in the markets of San Fran- 
cisco are very different from what one expects to find. 
The piled-up figs and grapes, apples, peaches, pears, 
and nectarines, which scent the air and fill the eye 
with beautiful color, do not tempt the Eastern palate, 
accustomed to concentrated sweets and sours. They 
tell me I must go South to find out what California 
fruit really is, and I am going, but without much 
hope. 

As the people of all nations congregate here, some 
dish from every other gets to each one's table. I ought 
to have said before, that fruit is quite as dear as it is at 
the East, only of a different sort. We have no figs nor 
rare grapes, and our plums do not grow as large ; but we 
give as large a bulk of the fruit we do grow for the same 
price. The fish-market is a poor one, and not nicely 
kept. An Eastern purchaser on his first arrival will 
waste a good deal of time in looking for a neater place. 
Vegetables and fruit are all picked too early. I have 
been frequenting the market for a * month, and have 
never yet seen a ripe tomato. The meats are very in- 
ferior to those in the Eastern stalls. These things are 
not said captiously, but to comfort those who fancy 
everything good can be found in California, from a gold 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 191 

nugget to a " golden drop." I have seen no new vege- 
table, unless the artichoke be one. 

The horrors of the Chinese market I do not know how 
to describe. I have not seen rats or mice exposed for sale, 
but far more repulsive articles, consisting of the entrails 
of many creatures. Beside that, and far worse, is the 
disgusting odor of their meat, for they do not like it fresh ; 
and every article of food is as fat as possible. Nothing 
that can have nutriment in it is despised by them, and 
the terribly diseased condition of their common people 
may be one of the results. Many things they bring from 
China, — dried snails, a dozen kinds of tiny dried fish, 
cakes of spawn, and so on. They make a sort of meat-pie 
by the thousand, which ought to have been described in 
Dante's "Inferno." It would nauseate Lucifer himself; 
and yet it looks, when first baked, like an innocent egg- 
muffin. There are radishes which are as white as.snovr, 
and weigh about three pounds each, — the only attrac- 
tive things I saw. They cut these in slices for a salad. 
There are black nuts which ought to be sacred to Bac- 
chus, for they look exactly like a ram's head and 
horns. There are also enormous cucumbers and egg- 
plants. 

In the shops where all these things are sold they cut 
up whole hogs, or split them open, flatten them out as 
we do a prairie-hen, and cook tliem whole in a circular 
furnace, built of stone or adobe. When baked they are 
almost as brittle as a stick of candy, but they are not 
burned. The Chinese have the reputation of being a 
cleanly people, but they are not so. They are orderly, 
and have been so for untold a^es, and the whole char- 
acter of their government sustains this characteristic ; 
but the common people are filthy beyond belief. I 



192 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

should not dare to tell what I have seen. The confi- 
dence of the European races in Chinese cleanliness grows 
out of the Chinese imitativeness, which makes them 
— when no stronger motive intervenes — do exactly as 
they have been taught. It was necessary to say this, 
because both filthy liabits and orderly ways are very 
conspicuous in the markets of which I speak. These 
consist of the lower story of an ordinary house with the 
front wall knocked out. In the doorway are the sample 
baskets, strings of unmentionables, and odors unendur- 
able. Imagine, too, a floor which was never washed. 
Half-way back are the furnace, the bakers oven, or the 
chopping-block, as the case may be. The workmen 
swarm like bees, and run over each other like ants. If 
they were Irishmen they would quarrel, and nothing 
would be done ; but tlie Chinaman follows his own path 
in silence, and order is the result. Across the top of 
the room is a board with seats ; and here, in the very 
presence of all that is offensive, as many as can sit are 
eating with their chop-sticks. The place is so crow^ded 
you can hardly get to the stairs. 

To-day has been Sunday. Tliere was a military re- 
view this morning, and all the unclean are abroad. 
When I came home from church I was invited to dine 
with a friend's family at the Italian restaurant. As a 
matter of curiosity, perhaps an account of the meal is 
worth giving. The cost is " four bits," or fifty cents to 
each person. Not much is spent on service. The 
dining-room is on the level of the street. Long tables 
covered with coarse gray-looking cloths run through it, 
of the quality that a shop-girl or merchant's clerk would 
expect at the East. Nothing has been spent on mirrors 
or chandeliers, and the floor cannot be clean, and is not. 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 193 

When we entered, the room was nearly full of men, 
women, and children, chattering in all conceivable 
tongues. If I did not hear Hebrew, some of those 
sharp-nosed, sleek-haired, dark men with pointed beards 
could certainly speak it. Before us — a party of live — 
was a square table, with a stiff napkin for each and a 
somewhat sticky knife and fork. The castor, AVorcester- 
shire, mustard, and pickle jars were in the centre, and 
looked clean. A goblet filled with ice was given to 
each of us, and two bottles of good California claret set 
down. For the " four bits " each person was served 
with eight entrees, — they could hardly be called 
courses : — 

1. Salad and bread. 

2. Soup. 

3. Fish, or mussels. 

4. Vermicelli. ■ 

5. Chicken-stew, with oyster patties. 

6. Fried cream, or beef, mutton, or veal. 

7. Dessert, — whipped cream, pie, and a strip of pastry, 

on one plate. 

8. Coffee, black, or with cream and sugar, and with 

peach brandy or "kisch." 

The salad was made of shrimps, crabs, lobster, or po- 
tato. It was served neatly on two crisp leaves of let- 
tuce, and Delmonico never seasoned it better. The 
bread was French and perfectly acid. Tiie soup was 
tomato, chicken, or houillon. I tried the bouillon, and 
found myself served with a pint-bowl of amber-colored 
liquid, which would have been improved by boiling 
dowm seven eighths. My friends took tomato and found 
no fault. For the third course a large platter of mus- 
sels, hot from the fire, was served to each one of us 

13 



194 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

which we were expected to open and eat with our fingers. 
They were about one fourth the size of those on Massa- 
chusetts coasts, and very sweet. The next course proved 
in my case the piece de resistance. It was a good-sized 
plate of vermicelli, well-cooked, and dressed with beef 
gravy, seasoned with cheese, Worcestersliire, and toma- 
to. It looked and tasted good ; and, as I was very much 
afraid I should not get enough dinner out of my eiglit 
entrees, I devoted myself to this. Then came chicken 
stew with oyster patties. This dish looked nice, and 
was fit for the ordinary stomach, but would prove un- 
suited to any delicate digestion. The chicken had cer- 
tainly taken too much exercise. It w^as a very gymnast 
of a chicken, but it served to flavor a stew of cymlins 
or summer-squash, and tomatoes cut in slices in a rich 
gravy. An oyster patty was put on the same plate 
when the stew was served, and this was made in the 
ordinary pastry-cook's fashion, — each patty containing 
two or three of the invisible California oysters " smoth- 
ered in cream," like Anacreon's pomegranates. We 
were next asked whether we w^ould have " fried cream," 
or a plate of beef, mutton, or veal, with the usual vege- 
tables. We said " fried cream," because we did not 
know what it was. A platter heaped with what looked 
like slender rice croquettes was then brought, flaming 
with brandy, and a bottle of peach-brandy or " kisch " 
was set down beside it. This dish is well worth intro- 
ducing to Northern tables. A nicely-made "Italian 
cream," shaped in a " brick," is cut into pieces of a solid 
sort, which are dipped in oil and then sprinkled thickly 
with cracker-crumbs. They are piled neatly on a dish, 
peach-brandy poured all over them and set on fire. 
The cream is browned to the consumer's taste, the quan- 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 195 

tity of brandy not being limited. Of course the alcohol 
is consumed, and only a very delicate flavor remains, 
the cream not beinsf melted as it would be if set on the 
fire. At dessert, whipped cream, custard pies, and pies 
made of green-apple marmalade, as well as slender slips 
of pastry to eat with the cream, were put on one plate 
for each. Coffee was served black, or with cream and 
suoar, for each of us, — well-made Central American 
coffee, not the finest Mocha. Then one of the gentle- 
men took a saucer full of lumps of sugar, which he filled 
w^ith " kisch," and set it on fire. This burned until a 
light-brown syrup succeeded, — not in the least like that 
produced by French brandy. Of this, two or tliree tea- 
spoonfuls were put in each cup. The alcohol is wdiolly 
consumed, and what remains is pure flavor. It does 
not improve the black coffee, but gives a delicate bitter- 
almond taste to that served with cream. This may be 
agreeable when an ordinary berry is used. Nothing 
can improve Mocha. 

I have described this dinner so minutely in order 
to show what can be had for fifty cents. For myself 
I should prefer four courses, with a larger proportion 
of soap and w^ater. 

In spite of all the wealth in California, one is often 
struck with the absence of refinement on great occa- 
sions. At one of the most elegant entertainments I 
have seen here, a superb pyramid of fruit was piled in 
the centre of the table. At the last moment, appar- 
ently, the grapes seemed likely to break with their owm 
weight, and twQ or three newspapers were insinuated 
beneath, plainly evident to the guests at the supper ! 
The " blood of the grape " would have been a much less 
offensive sigjht. 



196 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

We went through the Chinese quarter as we returned 
from dinner. The Chinese never put up a curtain ; and 
through the broad low windows of their shops, all with 
brilliantly lighted interiors, it was quite pleasant to 
watch their performances. In the barbers' shops the 
men were having their queues braided, and their eyes, 
noses, and ears cleaned out with a padded probe, while 
little children played round their feet. They were as 
indifferent to our inspection as if they had been slugs 
on a garden wall 

Sept. 13, 1880. — I went to-day to see Mrs. , simply 

to look at her jewels. I had warned her before that I 
should come, and I am sure it gave her pleasure to see 
how they pleased me. Diamonds she has and to spare, 
with many other wonderful things ; but in these days 
diamonds are not startling. What did startle me into 
so strange a proceeding, were two magnificent rings, 
each worthy to be a king's ransom. One is a blue tur- 
quoise, about half an inch in length and a third of an 
inch wide. And when I write blue, I do not mean blu- 
ish gray or green, but something as blue as the heaven 
itself The other was a pink pearl of about the same 
size, vivid as the heart of a damask rose, and creamed 
all over in the most perfect way. Both stones were set 
in a circlet of diamonds. Her husband has a passion 
for rings, and these were two of his gifts. I looked 
at them, as I might at a star or a cloud, with simple 
delight. 

I was invited to a crab supper, which I enjoyed; but 
not even the shell-fish here have the full flavor of the 
Atlantic shore. The Pacific ocean itself is deficient in 
salt. 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 197 

San Francisco to Stockton, Sept. 14, 1880. — To-day we 
started for Stockton, and in preparing we encountered 
another little episode of travel entirely unsuited to a 
civilized coninuinity. I was sent to an office under tLe 
Palace Hotel, to get tickets and checks. There were 
two clerks in attendance, who said that tickets used to 
be sold there, but were now only sold at the ferry ; that 
the express would not undertake to check baggage at 
the house, unless I went down in advance and bought 
my tickets, which was all right enough, — so away I 
went. Leaving the office, I turned to say, " Be sure 
you send the checks ; there are two trunks to go." 
" Oh," said the clerk, " the man wall have a dozen 
checks, and you must be ready at half-past two." 

About twelve o'clock, before we were fully packed, 
the " express " appeared and demanded our baggage. 
He had no check, and refused to give any receipt for the 
articles ; so, much disappointed, I sent him away. A 
neighbor passing at the time volunteered to send a 
carriage, which I allowed. The hour passed, and Mr. 
W. was despatched on the same errand again. When 
the carriao-e came, it refused to take the trunks, which 
were only large valises, although it had been warned. 
I insisted ; and, after all, we barely caught the train. 
Because we went as far as Lathrop on our through 
tickets to Los Angeles, and bought a way-ticket from 
Lathrop to Stockton, the road would only check our 
luggage to Lathrop, which we reached after dark, thus 
adding most unnecessarily to our small perplexities. 

We moved through a very level country, with marshes 
or the Bay itself to the northeast, strange as that will 
sound. The Coast Ptange was between us and the sea. 
They were threshing wheat by steam on several ranches. 



198 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

I did not like to see them. Bucolics bid fair to 1)e 
impossible to the poet who comes after the nineteenth 
century. Now and then a pleasant homestead appeared. 
High hedges shut lawns of emerald away from the 
brown waste. 

Certainly the " Father of Lies " must have settled 
California, for no one can spealv the truth liere even by 
accident ! Instead of the three hours we were promised, 
we soon saw that it would be five before we should 
reach Stockton ; and my daughter was faint with hun- 
ger. At Lathrop, Cousin Will appeared ; and after we 
got into the Stockton cars things went smoothly enough. 
We drove from the dep6t to the house in the clear light 
of the moon, and I found that my spirits liad risen 
wdtli the fog. Four dogs, and a lovely woman clad in 
white came out to meet us, as we entered a house 
spotlessly kej^t. 

A supper of fruit, ham, eggs, potatoes, bread, and 
delicious coffee was soon set before us, followed by a 
second course of ice-cream and cake. 

Sept. 15, 1880. — Early this morning I went out into 
the grounds. I am afraid I never can call anything a 
garden, which has neither a grass plat nor one green - 
bordered bed. Beds can easily be bordered by dew 
plants here, but few persons seem to think of it. This 
house stands in a clump of live-oak, quite a distance in 
from the road. Never did Eastern mortal see so beau- 
tiful an oleander as stands by the gate. It is more than 
twelve feet high, has many stems, and the flowers are 
double, of the color of a damask rose, and they fill the 
air with sweetness. The live-oaks are covered with ivy 
to their topmost boughs: Jessamine covers the porch, 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 199 

where pretty potted plants are in bloom, and hanging 
baskets swing. By looking at some hedges I dis- 
covered, nmch to my amazement, that what is some- 
times called a " scrub oak " here, is really a sort oi" 
holly ! There is a very curious ailanthus here, covered 
with beautiful pods. It has no disagreeable odor when in 
bloom. The flowering maple shades the house, and the 
delicate pepper tree adds everywhere its lines of fragile 
grace. The pepper tree is the most delicious thing in 
California. It looks like an acacia. I have heard that 
in India it requires a support like a vine. Here it 
forms a stroug but slender trunk that has the gently 
swaying character of our white birch. The foliage is 
of a delicate green, tho blossom almost invisible, for I 
have not observed it, while the bright scarlet I'ruit hangs 
in graceful bunches after the manner of grapes. This 
tree holds such a place in the tree world as the maii- 
bou does in the world of feathers. 

I already feel the climate of Stockton the most agree- 
able I have encountered since I crossed the mountains. 
One of the torments of the San Francisco climate lies 
in the fact that you cannot go out early or late without 
a winter wrap ; and if I start for an excursion between 
the hours of eleven and three, when the thermometer 
is close on eighty, I must carry an oppressive shawl in 
reserve. Here one does not feel the change till dark- 
ness falls, but there is no pleasant sitting out on the 
beautiful porch even here. "Come in, you will catch the 
rheumatism !" is Cousin Will's cry, as soon as the sun 
disappears. In the early morning, however, I found it 
delicious ; and I puzzled my brains over some common 
double balsams, or touch-me-nots, growing in pots. I 
remember seeing some in the conservatory at the park. 



200 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

What a funny freak of the climate, if it refuses to grow 
balsams ! 

We went out to drive soon after breakfast, and passed 
through the pretty cemetery, where in the Italian style 
the Monterey cypresses are trimmed so slenderly as to 
look like tali sentinels. There are many of them around 
each lot, and they remind me of the tall cactus on the 
plains. I hear to-day that this cactus is most useful. 
It is full of threads, which are made into cordage ; and 
when it begins to grow, the Mexicans cut it off, scoop out 
the trunk, and as the sap accumulates pour it into pails. 
It is distilled into aqua arcliente. After the growth geases 
the root is boiled, and a more delicate sort of liquor dis- 
tilled from that. 

Stockton is well planted with trees. It is a wide 
plain, dizzy with windmills which control the irrigation. 
It is surrounded by sloughs, pronounced slews. There 
are a great many New England-like houses, very tidily 
kept. 

A Mr. Weber, an original proprietor here, who was 
probably insane and certainly very eccentric, gave all the 
land for the Catholic cemetery and the convent-school. 
We encountered three small-pox flags as we drove about, 
and saw the enormous loads of wheat from every part 
of the adjacent country driven to the already teeming 
warehouses. Five or six powerful horses were attached 
to eacli load. The streets are so quiet that it does not 
look like a busy town. It is however a base of supply 
and a wheat centre. 

We went to the Asylum and brought the wife of the 
superintendent home to lunch. She is a charming wo- 
man, full of pluck. When she arrived in San Francisco 
thirty years ago a policeman said to her, " Madam, why 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 201 

did you come ? There is not a decent woman in the 
State I " — " There is certainly one, now I have got here," 
was her quick reply. 

During her stay we talked of really delightful things. 
She left us at three o' clock; and as the day was quite 
hot, although the feel of the icy trade-wind was percept- 
ible under the torrid glow, we rested until Cousin Will 
brouoht his friend Mr. C. home to dinner. The latter is 

o 

full of information and pleasant talk, for he has been 
here since the State first had a name. 

He said it did him good to hear me describe Leadville. 
He had always wanted one woman to know what a hell 
California was when he first saw it, and I had described 
it. When I spoke of the little child leaning against her 
burro, he went on to say that before ever a woman had 
set foot here the circuses and strollim? theatres came. 
Everybody went to them, because there was neither so- 
ciety, books, magazines, nor papers. In each troop was 
a little child, a " California Pet." Nothing ever came so 
near the heart of the men. When they called her back 
to the stage they would shower it with gold. 

Stockton, Sept. 16, 1880. — Early this morning we 
took a carriage and drove over to the Insane Asylum, of 
which Dr. George A. Shurtleff is superintendent. He 
originally came out here to practise his profession, and 
when his wife joined him they opened a private board- 
ing house, as much for the comfort of sundry gentle 
friends as their own advanta^'e. 

I believe I went through all the wards, with the ex- 
ception of the ''Filthy " male ward ; and that I forgot those 
was due to the satisfaction I felt in the general aspect of 
things and the charms of the surroundings. I never saw 



202 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

SO clean an establishment. The purity of the air is not 
merely due to the management, but is largely the result 
of a climate which will allow doors and windows to be 
kept open all the time. The floors are made of Oregon 
pine, and they are spotless. So is the surbase of the 
wainscot ; and that means more. In the "Filthij " female 
ward not an odor was perceptible. Never have I seen a 
svveeter room than one which holds women as helpless 
as new-born babies. I talked with many of them. A 
great many nations are represented liere. I saw Malays, 
Lascars, Chinese, Spaniards, Mexicans, half-breeds, In- 
dians, and Chilians ! Poor things ! 

Dr. Shurtleff" says that intemperance is the exciting 
cause of insanity in this State to a greater extent than 
anywhere in the world. I never saw a liner laundry. 
There are no regular religious services, but Catholic 
priests come often to patients of that communion. 

We went through the beautiful grounds, and in the 
vineyards plucked " mission grapes," wliich I always in- 
quire for, because I am told they are the finest table 
grape in California, and were brought from Spain by the 
Franciscans. Half a ton of them are given to the pa- 
tients here daily, but I did not find a sweet one. I ob- 
serve that the leaves are allow^ed to grow over this fruit 
in California in a way that I never saw anywhere else. 
I suppose it is on account of the fog, which is percep- 
tible though not heavy even here. In the garden there 
are five or six century plants in bloom. I am told 
tliat the real reason why this name was given to the aloe 
is that it will live a century if in a climate which does 
not permit it to bloom. It dies as soon as it has attend- 
ed to the duty of perpetuation, and the blossoming oc- 
curs in its fifth or sixth year, if it has a rapid growth. 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 203 

The blossom-stalk shoots up from the centre at the rate 
of fourteen inches a day, and to the height of thirty to 
thirty-five feet. Branches issue from it on every side, 
so as to form a sort of pyramid of greenish-yellow flowers, 
which well sheltered will keep in bloom for two or three 
months. This flower-stem is cut off if the natives want 
to make pulciue, and the juice of the leaves, which lath- 
ers well with salt and fresh water alike, is pressed into 
cakes and used for soap. There were a good many nuts 
on these stalks, but I could not get one of full size. The 
castor-oil plant rose everywhere in princely beauty, all 
its spiked fruit crimson and shaped like the berries of 
the sumach. The crape myrtle is everywhere, in delicate 
pink or white. Two cork-elm trees planted in a shel- 
tered court sixteen years ago are now sixty feet high ! 

The male ward is covered with an immense ivy in 
wdiich hundreds of rats have made their nests, and wliich 
just now looks rather dilapidated. Before it was cut it 
stood four feet out from the wall. When the doctor lost 
one hundred chickens in a night, he thought it best to 
investigate ! After his first attei^jpt at poisoning, more 
than two hundred rats came to the chicken-house in one 
night for water and -died there. 

This afternoon I drove sixteen miles to Waterloo and 
back, in about an hour and a half! What a delightful 
rush it was through balmy air, perfumed by figs, grapes, 
and wheat ! Lovely little homes surrounded by vines 
and fig-trees rose everywhere. Empty wheat teams 
crept all along the road. In every instance the driver 
was lying intoxicated across the bottom, and the five or 
six horses or mules were moving at their own pace. A 
fine pair of mules had lost their driver altogether, and 
dragged their empty wagon back and forth in front of 



204 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

US till they swamped themselves and it in a ditch beside 
the road. The farmers and tavern-keepers spread wheat 
straw deep all over the road about their premises to 
keep down the dust. 

When we got home I went out in a lovely, rosy sun- 
set to see my cousin milk, — a thing he always does him- 
self because he does not like to trust his patent milking 
tubes to any other hand. The little nickel tubes are put 
one into each teat. These are attached to rubber pipes, 
which all unite below in one vent. As soon as these are 
firmly and gently inserted, their weight draws down the 
milk; and all the milker has to do is to strip the cow at 
the last. It was quite new to me. 

Stockton, Sept. 17, 1880. — I have really packed up 
for the big trees, and have given up the Yo Semite. 
I have letters from India wliich make me anxious, 
and I have no news from my banker as I expected ; 
so I dare not go. I have a good imagination. Huge 
photographs have made me familiar with every turn 
in the valley; and I, have seen so many canons that 
I shall not miss anything but immeasurable dimen- 
sions. So I try to console myself, and wonder that 
I do not feel more disappointed. After breakfast I 
went to see the artificial ice made, with which Stock- 
ton is supplied. I daresay I have forgotten to tell you 
that I have missed ice greatly in San Francisco. It lias 
only been offered to me once ; and the wealthiest per- 
sons seem to prefer to do without it. 

It is possible to make the artificial ice twelve inches 
thick, but they do not wait for this. It is usually 
cut at six inches. An engine exhausts the air from 
hollow tubes which run round the ice tanks. Then 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 205 

a preparation of ether rushes in, and by rapid evapora- 
tion condenses the water. The ether is condensed 
again in its turn, and the waste is so slight that the 
manufacture costs very little. 

In the neighborhood of the river everything looked 
green, and the air was heavy with the odor of wheat. 
We walked through the immense warehouses holding 
eighteen thousand tons of wheat each. The railway 
cars were trundling away, reeking with grain ; wagons 
were unloading on the square. Even the outside 
porches of the warehouses were packed to the ceiling. 
It was easy to guess at the character of each farmer 
by the way in which his wagon was packed. 

Next we drove to the paper mill, and I got specimens 
of paper made of wheat straw, such as the " Bulletin " 
is printed on. No wonder it cracks when one turns 
the leaf. 

Last of all we went to a fruit garden, kept by De 
Costa, a Portuguese, married to an English woman, 
whose mother, a Mrs. Lyley, began to cultivate this 
spot just thirty years ago. Here we saw what sit- 
ting "under one's own fig tree" might come to mean. 
Mighty trees, twenty-five years old, and beautiful for 
shade and fruit, environed the modest dwelling and 
perfumed all the air. Thirty-five hundred pounds were 
sold from the largest of these trees last year. There is 
a large orchard of white and purple figs attached to the 
place, and now bearing their third crop. There are 
wonderful peaches, plums, and pomegranates, and a 
vineyard which has given me my first conception of 
California grapes. 

Tliey loaded us with fruit, more than we could carry 
away; and finally brought dried figs for me to carry to 



206 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

the Calaveras to-morrow. These were purple, and had 
been half dried on the tree, until they had just the 
taste of the best imported fruit. It was delicious, a 
thousand times better than that of the ripe fig fresh 
from the tree. De Costa thinks the purple fig the 
richest. The first crop of the Smyrna white is as 
good as can be grown. The second is worth less, which 
means that it turns acid because it ripens under too 
hot a sun. 

Stockton, SeiJt 18, 1880.— Never shall I forget the 
luncheon basket with which Cousin Minnie sent me off 
this morning. It was heavier than the valise which 
held my clotlies, and much to my surprise was cer- 
tainly needed at every point on the way. The train 
carried me toward Milton, through vast fields of golden 
stubble, where sunshine would have lingered even had 
the rain been falling. Do I not remember the won- 
derful grove in Michigan through which I once 
travelled in heavy rain, and never realized it was not 
glowing sun ? 

There are seven varieties of small-leaved oaks on 
these plains. The foliage is very dark. Immense 
trees are scattered along the margins of the wheat 
fields. Here and there the plough had lately turned 
up a rich black soil. I saw, too, a strange " header " 
wagon, with one side so much lower than the other 
that the reaper tosses the grain into it easily. Beau- 
tiful stacks of grain or straw were on every side. The 
certainty of dry weather cheers the farmer while he 
cuts and stores his wheat. The straw was stacked in 
a long oval, of a bulk which suggests the fruitful year. 
This straw was once burned. It now goes to the paper- 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 207 

maker and in a year like this for what it costs to carry it. 
It would be quite as well to lay it down on the dusty 
highways and bind in tlie clay. Sun-flowers and the pur- 
ple spires of the musk-weed were the only blossoms that 
I saw. A short mullein, which bears a faded cream- 
colored flower, blotched the ground all over, eacli plant 
starring it in dusty state and with a very odd effect. 

Dreary wastes ! At last at Peters, where we tarried 
for wood, upland slopes began to hint at mountains. 
A moraine pushed out under the foot of one, as though 
there had been glaciers before the lava burst through. 
Then a few dingy, shelf-like " wash-outs " showed them- 
selves, looking, in color and form, as the woody fungi 
which grow out of old stumps would do if they were 
magnified. Trees were few ; and many cracks in the 
soil seemed to tell of transitory torrents. Hill-tops 
soon spread at a wider angle. When we were over, 
pine forests hung with grapes appeared, and manzani- 
tas, called also by the Spaniards the parsley-leaved 
hawthorne. These were hung with clusters of small 
crabs as big as a rose pip, but not yet ripe. Through 
these and the cedars fell Eock Creek, purling and 
babbling, and now and then rushing madly over a crag. 
A mighty rapid it must be after the rains. Out of the 
water and out of the hill-side great black tombstones 
of trap spring up, and in the very bed of the stream 
large masses of a green stone like serpentine. ScarJet 
arid yellow mosses " tricked out " the slabs, as a coach- 
maker would say. The soil was red with iron, and 
clayey. 

At times the dust hid the nearest horse's head. I 
was alone in a coach meant for nine, for " the season " 
was over, and I played a good game at battledore and 



208 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

shuttlecock with silent partners. At last we took up a 
returned miner and the proprietor. We were crossing 
Bear Mountain, one of the spurs of the Sierras. I did 
not like to part from Eock Creek, it seemed so like a 
stream in the White Mountains, except that here granite 
is changed to trap, and the whole scene has a wider angle, 
and the inexpressibly mighty character which belongs 
to the Eocky Mountains. We were about 2,300 feet 
above the sea. There were plantations of figs and 
grapes trained in rocky hollows, but no houses visible. 
Thousands of sheep strayed up and down the tossed 
and rugged slope to the creek. They are sheared twice 
a year, in May and October. Layers of slate thrust 
themselves edgewise through the soil, painted with gay 
lichens. We came to a point called tlie Eeservoir, 
where there is an artificial lake, covering 1,300 acres, 
for the use of the miners at North Hill. Here were 
flocks of sheep, mighty enough to haunt Bo-Peep 
through all the ages. They are penned at night, but 
never sheltered in the day. 

At last I heard one of the men behind me say, " I 
suppose that lady won't submit to smoking, so we must 
have a chew." The " lady " kept a safe silence, — she 
had hardly had a breath of pure air since she entered 
the State, and she thought it best to make the most of 
this opportunity. 

Our road now lay through a vast ranch, — a privi- 
lege granted that the farmer may get his mail a lit- 
tle sooner. There was a cluster of houses, — one 
prettily shaded with vines and trees, one other with a 
chimney outside, Virginia fashion. A mighty farm-yard, 
dusty with a thousand hoofs, opened here. Groups 
of lovely gray jacks stood about the huge barn, and 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. ' 209 

some fine horses. Black pigs, as clean as the horses, 
were skipping gaily about, and poking each other in 
the ribs. 

After we had cleared the gate, in the midst of a vast 
field we saw a neatly enclosed lot, where crape myrtle 
and oleanders bloomed radiant in rose-color and white, 
while a few white stones rose here and there. It was 
a graveyard, and belonged to the ranch we had left. 
How clear before my eyes rose such another enclos- 
ure, — on the dear old homestead in New Hampshire, — 
where roses and cypress-trees nod through the rails ! 

Then we drew near " a*lodge in the vast wilderness " 
a mile further on. It was a " whisky mill," the driver 
said. In front of it stood a blind fiddler. We took 
him up, and I learned afterward that his youth had 
been violent and wicked ; but up here in the hills 
people do not discuss each other's failings as freely as 
over the tea-tables of San Francisco. Some trouble 
brought on by his excesses was not well understood by 
the oculist in San Francisco. He bears his blindness 
cheerily, lives round among the neighbors, and gets a 
new suit of clothes from the stage company, for which 
he once drove, whenever he needs it. He seems a 
favorite, and earns his pin — or perhaps I should say 
his button — money by his fiddle. 

" Give me my cheese box," he says, as he clambers 
in and reaches out his hand for his fiddle. 

Then he shouts to the man in the whisky mill, " Poi- 
son the next fellow who comes along, only be sure you 
kill him!" 

Then in answer to the driver, — 

" I was a jolly Mexican last night, and a jolly Dutch- 
man the night before." 

14 



210 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

" And you will be a jolly Chilian to-niglit, if one of 
them wants the fiddle ? " 

" To be sure." 

" Did they plank down well ? " 

"Yes; business don't go on long without the 'collat- 
erals,' you bet." 

Soon we came to Gibson's, in the midst of a paradise 
of trees. Everything was clean ; but I knew I had a 
better dinner in my basket than Gibson could give me ; 
so I ate it sitting on the piazza, in the divine, golden 
air, with an Italian sky above me. In my bottle 
of coffee were three pats of' butter, each as large as 
a nutmeg, mute witnesses to the purity of Minnie's 
cream. 

There is a great reach of mimetic apple-orchards all 
about. I saw no bird but the wood-pecker, and he was 
busy boring holes in the trunks of the imitative live- 
oaks, and sticking them full of acorns till they looked 
as if they were embossed. When I said this, the men 
began to talk of the blue-bird, of the California canary, 
and a lark with a few sweet notes quite unlike the bird 
of sixteen songs who soars in Colorado. 

Beyond Gibson's we climbed a second spur. We lost 
the trades altog^ether, and came into a cool mountain 
breeze. The driver, w^ho was a braggart and had large 
stories to tell of Ms horses and his coaches, said sud- 
denly, " There are some quail, George ;" and at my very 
ear a gun went off. Mr. Madison shot two, and the 
coach was detained for him to find and pick them up. 
A little way on, a team stopped to tell us that Senter, 
the shopman at Murphy's, had been thrown by his 
horse and run away with. Here Mr. Madison's wife 
and son came to meet him in a carry-all, drawn by two 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 211 

beautiful grays ; and as the coacli was late, and I the 
only passenger, and Mr. Madison the proprietor, I was 
transferred to it, and bowled rapidly along the lovely 
road they call the " Grade." This is a turnpike between 
Stanislaus and Calaveras ; and, besides resting nie very 
much, this change saved me an hour of time. Never 
was there a lovelier mountain ride. A hill covered 
with trees, vineyards, and sugar-pines rose to the left ; 
a brook rippled on my right, hid by clambering vines. 
Ledges of snowy-white peeped out from the trees. 
Mr. Madison said these were of lava, and that a great 
stream of it — white, gray, and rose-color — fills what is 
known as the " Dead Eiver " bed and underlies the ridge 
on which the " Big Trees " stand. 

I was delighted with the delicate, tender way in which 
the proprietor's family spoke to each other, and much 
surprised at the evidences of general reading and self- 
culture. 

The lava beds are at right angles with the courses of 
the living rivers. Mighty pines completed my bewild- 
erment. Mr. Madison said that these were sugar-pines, 
whose cones are twenty-four inches long. They are 
tapped like maples, and from between the sap and the 
heart wood exudes a sweet substance severely drastic, 
which the Indians used as medicine. Botanically 
speaking, I guess this to be the Pinus Lamhertiana. 
Some of its trunks are twenty feet in diameter and two 
hundred feet high. The trees stand singly, with almost 
no branches for more than one hundred and twenty-five 
feet. The seeds are often roasted or made into bread. 
They have a sweet, oily taste, and Europeans assert that 
they relieve various affections of the kidneys. There is 
a very prevalent idea that the sweet character of the ex- 



212 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

udation is due to the partial charring of the trees. But 
this is probably a notion. Those who live among them 
disdain the story. 

We soon rolled into Murphy's, a pretty green oasis in 
this mountain wilderness, and I was instantly transferred 
to a coach with four horses ; and I supposed I was to con- 
tinue my journey alone, after the shuttlecock fashion. 
Before we got out of town, however, the driver saw a 
child in the road, and shouted out : " Hollo, Hatty ! I'd 
forgotten you!" and we turned out of our course to a 
side street, where we took in trunks and the said little 
girl, daughter of the landlord at the Big Trees, and en- 
titled I suppose to her passage. 

Between Murphy's and the Big Trees we rose two 
thousand four hundred feet. A good part of the way 
the road was hardly visible, being a mere wheel-track 
under a mighty forest, for we were climbing the Sierra 
itself. I was obliged to cling with both hands to the 
coach, and hardly thought I should reach the end of 
my journey alive. Very glad was I that my daughter 
had not come with me, as I wished. She would not 
have been able to bear the journey itself, nor the changes 
of temperature, nor the start for home at three o'clock in 
the morning, which I must take. 

After the moon rose, and the great trunks of the 
sugar-pines were silvered, the whole scene took on a 
majesty beyond words. God grant I may never lose 
the memory of it ! The surplus water of the Union 
Tanks made as sweet music as a heaven-born brook. 

A vast saw-mill takes up five hundred acres in the 
very heart of this timber. The sight of it went through 
me like a knife ! One by one the monarchs of the soil 
are falling. I am glad that I came before it should be 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 213 

too late. Is there anywhere else in the world such a 
forest as this ? It is soon to be only a memory, and if 
there are others, they too will perish ! 

We carried the mail into several ranches, shouting 
through the still night as we went. We rushed over 
bridges which had neither beams nor rails. We nearly 
ran over a Chinaman from the saw-mill while we shouted 
out the news that Senter was dying. He carried a plank 
over his shoulders, with an odd-looking Chinese bundle 
tied to one end, while his fingers played with the other 
as if it were a twii^ of ozier. 

Mark Twain should describe all this if I could get 
hold of him. Every moment I expected to be thrown 
out and killed, but I declared to myself that I would at 
least have a good time before it happened. My driver 
is a character. His father, a Mr. C. in Wisconsin, taught 
Mrs. Maxwell how to stuff and preserve skins; and he 
was full of anecdote about -her. He liad lived near 
neighbor to Ole Bull, and could not do his work in the 
stable when Ole took to playing. He does not like Cali- 
fornia, and is going East, which means — to Colorado ! 
I was amused to hear him say, as he riddled the dust 
on the horses' backs with his whip, that he would like to 
get to a " clean place " to die ! I had something of the 
same feeling myself. He knew the scientific names of 
most of the trees, and distinguished them easily. Both 
drivers to-day asserted that intemperance is on the 
increase throughout the country, and neither of them 
drank a drop. 

So, jerking, bouncing, pommelling, and chattering, we 
dashed round the base of the hill. It cannot happen to 
many people to make tliis journey under the harvest 
moon, and my cup was full to the brim as we rushed be- 



214 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

tween the two " Sentinels," not a whit more strikino; fi'j;- 
ures than the giant pines through which I had already 
passed, and up to the door of the long, low, white, com- 
fortable-looking hotel. How fragrant and soft the air 
through which we drove ! 

A dozen whisks assailed me, — before, behind, above, 
below ; but^ alas ! the dust was a " deposit," and would 
budge for no one's striving. I hardly waited to throw 
off my cloak before I went out with Mr. Sperry in search 
of the white ghosts that haunt the grove. The moon 
rode full and superb in the sky. I hoped that the 
gaunt branches of the naked "mother of the forest" 
would turn to silver under her witchino" beams. I had, 
too, a feeling that I ought to walk a few miles to throw 
off the effect of the severe bruises I had received. 

This last benefit I fully realized, and also the wonder- 
ful night-walk through columns of a temple Atlas might 
have reared to sustain the heavenly dome, set with a 
thousand points of light. The " mother of tlie forest," 
however, seemed to resent my impertinent curiosity, and 
steadily refused to show the stately form which, shorn 
of its natural clothing, stood naked in the night. The 
trees bent before her and held her in their sacred 
shadow. The malice of Diana w^as foiled. 

Calaveras Grove^ Smiclay, Sept. 19, 1880. — I ought to 
say that I found a comfortable bed here, but uneatable 
food and a very untidy room. My morning bath took 
so long that it was after eight before I could go out to 
the trees. Then I took a guide-book and followed the 
path alone. 

The only way in which any one could get a true 
idea of a tree taller than Bunker Hill monument 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 215 

would be to see it standing alone. If the Vandals who 
bored through the trunk which forms the floor of the 
little dancing-hall had cleared a space for it instead, 
they would have deserved well of mankind. But, alas ! 
over three hundred feet liigh and ninety-two in circum- 
ference, it rose direct to lieaven, with such vertical 
accuracy that, after the trunk was wholly divided, it 
would not fall. When it was finally lowered, in true 
California — or rather mining-gulch — fashion, a billiard- 
room and a bar-room were built upon it. I was amazed 
at the number of fallen trees. Five of the prostrate 
trunks are ascended by ladders of from twenty to thirty 
steps erected at their sides ! Their twisted roots still 
cling to and burrow in the earth. Those that are broken 
bristle defiantly ; but draw near, and each bristle may 
be from eight to eighteen inches in thickness. The 
same Vandals who sawed or bored through the sound 
trunk which w^as first levelled, deprived the poor 
" mother of the forest " of her bark, and this was 
afterward destroyed by fire, — I think at Sydenham. 
She is 327 feet high and, without her bark, 78 feet in 
circumference. The sun touched her white limbs with 
light this morning. It was as if the filial guard, which 
had shut out the cold rays of the prying moon, opened 
to let the genial sunshine bathe her dishonored form. 

A great many estimates are given of the size of these 
trees. It is easy to say that the tree is measured at the 
ground, and again at six and twelve feet above it ; but, 
in point of fact, no one ever finds the foot of a tree. 
Each is surrounded by a mound, consisting of the accu- 
mulations of centuries ; and above this the tree is so 
heavily buttressed as greatly to exaggerate the figure. 
If the tree grow naturally from a single germ, it will 



216 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

be no more than gracefully strengthened at the base, 
and then rise like a mighty column to heaven, every 
perpendicular line channelling the trunk, as an architect 
mio-ht do. It will stand so true that if sundered hori- 

o 

zontally it could not fall. There are eight of the largest 
trees so formed, and their glowing trunks might be the 
jasper colonnades of the heavenly Jerusalem. 

But most of these trees appear to be composite. 
From one fallen cone two or three tiny threads liave 
started, blending into one as they grew. That one 
thread should be a little stronger than the others occa- 
sions first abnormal buttresses at the base, and then a 
twist in the whole column, with a sort of Byzantine 
effect, all the lines swerving round the tree. It is im- 
possible for the human eye to take in the height with 
one glance, unless at a distance of sixty or seventy feet ; 
and this is seldom attainable. This is as true of the 
sugar-pines as of the sequoia. To stand at the foot of 
one of these trees and try to let the eye pierce the 
heavens with its shaft, is like no other experience on 
earth. There comes with it an intense sense of Almighty 
power and presence, and a sort of sacred awe when one 
thinks of the ages that have passed since the fire was 
kindled which has killed some of these trees and 
scarred so many. Some people think the Indians 
kindled it ; but, if so, what Indians ? 

Close to the charred trunks are others, centuries old, . 
which are not harmed. Many of the fallen trees w^ere 
felled by fire which must have burned more than 
seven hundred years ago. What could have put out a 
forest fire strong enough to eat out the heart of a se- 
quoia for more than ninety feet ? Within the memory 
of living men, a small sequoia was accidentally set on 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 217 

fire. It was not killed, although its red heart was 
eaten out ; and yet every tree within forty feet of it 
was charred, and no man could breathe the air of the 
grove ! 

The foliage of the youngest and healthiest trees is 
oddly disproportioned to their size. The branches come 
out at from one hundred to a hundred and fifty feet 
above the ground ; and they never look huge, although 
they are so, as the fallen giants show. The leaves are 
like those of the cedar; but, instead of being flat, tliey 
are round, spurred all about at first, and perfectly 
smooth only when quite mature. The rosy bark, soft 
as velvet to the touch, and marked with silver furrows, 
was an entire surprise to me. 

In among these trees are sugar-pines two hundred 
and seventy-five feet high, and from nine to eleven 
in diameter ; and to say that these do not look 
large, is to say something very emphatic about the 
whole grove. Still, tliis Calaveras grove does not 
impress the imagination with dreams of a prime- 
val forest, owing to its thin foliage. I have little 
doubt that if I stood in Windsor Forest, or in the 
Bois de Boulo^^ne, or on the skirts of the Black Forest, 
I should be far more deeply moved by the ancient oaks 
and beeches, simply because they are not so tall, and 
the circumference of widely sheltering foliage is added 
to that of the trunk. 

It was through three miles of forest, consisting of 
the pines which I have described, that I came up here 
last night. Nothing I have found here impresses me 
like this drive, crossed by the fantastic shadows the 
weird moon compelled. 

Some of the guide-books say that it is nonsense 



218 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

to suppose that any of these trees ever reached the 
height of four hundred and fifty feet. But why ? 
In Australia, tlie eucalyptus does this often, and 
it is a very rapidly growing tree. Some of the 
fallen sequoias, which are sound for three hundred 
feet, have still a deep furrow to show where their 
proud summits once lay. In some of these fur- 
row^s trees two centuries old are growing. In one, a 
horseman may ride far and not lift his head above the 
surface of the soil. The fallen " Hercules " is a good 
illustration of what I said about the twist in the 
trunks. Before he fell he stooped earthward for sixty 
feet at an angle, wdiich some of us remember in the 
old Greek marbles. 

The " Pride of the Forest," " The Hermit," " The 
Nightingale," and " The Forest Beauty " fill the eye and 
the soul in a way I cannot describe. I must omit 
writing of some superb trees, because they have names 
which would eat out the heart of any description. To 
think of being compelled to bow one's head in wonder- 
ing awe before a tree named for a man wdio did not 
fail to be a traitor for lack of the desire ; or before 
another, named for one the thought of whom flushes 
every woman's cheek with shame ! It does not seem 
an accident that the tablet which bears this last name 
has burst asunder with the recent growth of the mighty 
trunk. Some day perhaps it will fall. 
' A beautiful group of three trees in perfect line is 
called " The Graces." The " Pioneer's Cabin " has room 
for two old " settles " in its hollow trunk, and a chim- 
ney through which the stars shine. The " God of fire," 
however, was not satisfied with these slender accom- 
modations. Seventy feet away in a still living tree, 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 219 

two liundred and seventy-five feet high and seventeen 
in diameter, he has hollowed out a -chimney ninety 
feet in height, and cut away a window seventy feet 
above ground, to add fury to the draught. 

Just liere I came upon the fallen trunk of " The 
Monarch of the Forest." Centuries ago it fell. Its 
bark is gone, and much of the e>:terior wood. It is 
sound at heart ; but it struck against another tree in 
falling, and both were shivered, so the upper half of 
the tree long since disappeared. The furrow it once 
fdled is still visible, and full of flowers. The acrid 
juice of the sequoia prevents insects from feeding on 
it. I never in my life was in a wood where there was 
so little life. Nothing seemed to live in the dead trees, 
but ninety feet from the ground I saw many bees' 
nests. The fall of these trees is pathetic. If one 
strikes a rock or another tree, no matter how small, its 
own weight shivers it, — imparting significance to the 
most trivial obstacle. 

So is it with man himself 

I walked through the empty bowels of the " Father 
of the Forest." Two hundred feet one may follow the 
outline, after the three hundred feet of trunk still exist- 
ent has been explored. It is a hundred and twelve feet 
in circumference at the base, and about fifty where we 
lose sight of it. A man on horseback, perhaps two, 
could ride through it. Out of the dead trunk spring 
tender flowers, and because a never failing spring is at 
its root green vines and young trees start from the 
crevices. 

As I wandered languidly toward the house, weary oi 
the strain on my feelings, some young men who had 
been trying to measure the trees, and had found their 



220 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

strings too short, plied me with questions. They were 
not wasting their day of rest. The dead trees shone 
with the golden touch of the lichen ; a piney sweet- 
ness loaded the air ; some little children in a camp 
close by were laughing and crowing. It was easy to 
believe that God is good. 

This mammoth grove fills a small valley near the 
headwaters of the San Antonio, in Calaveras County. 
It still contains ninety-three of the large old trees, and 
many young ones, on which I wish they would begin 
to try experiments to decide the manner of their 
growth. I have no objection to thinking these trees 
fifteen hundred years old, but I do not ; and on my 
suggesting the idea, I find scientific men here not dis- 
mclined to think that they may make wood faster than 
has been supposed. 

The grove of sugar-pines, in which the trees stand, is 
more wonderful than they. I think the elliptical walk 
which leads through this is perhaps a mile and a half 
long. 

In the South Park Grove, to which I should have 
gone on horseback if I had found Mr. Belden here, 
there are 1,380 trees. One, still alive, has a space 
capable of containing sixteen horsemen. The groves 
are not so uncommon as has been believed. Eleven 
have been explored, and hundreds more may exist 
unseen of men. 

Mine host is kind and intelligent, but he has not yet 
learned what the public want in a house like this. I 
have been the only guest, and have been offered at 
dinner four different, roasts and three sorts of vegeta- 
bles, no one well cooked ! The bread might have been 
good, but was spoiled by the rancid butter used on the 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 221 

pans. Bread and milk, with a good cup of tea, might 
satisfy anybody ; but this feast of Tantalus is costly and 
uneatable. 

I wrote two hours in the heat of the day, and then 
went through the grove for the third time to strengthen 
my impressions, and to collect cones, bark, and foliage. 

At the last moment, Mr. Belden arrived. He has 
been huntius; near the summit of the Sierra with three 
friends. The latter will go down with me, laden with 
quail and trout. One of the proprietors has been with 
them, and will drive us down to Murphy's with four 
fresh horses. We shall make good time, and sleep there 
to-night. 

Later, the coach was detained while Mr. Belden 
showed me some flowers he had gathered on the sum- 
mit, some of them blooming in the snow. He gener- 
ously shared his specimens with me. We took a road 
to the right, on leaving the "Sentinels," not nearly 
so attractive as that by which I ascended under the 
lig^ht of the moon. The road was intolerable. We 
dragged over prostrate trunks and uncovered roots. 
The forest seemed tame. The only lovely thing as we 
dashed through was a narrow valley, or bit of interval, 
occupied by a Mr. Dunbar as a ranch. It was as 
green as emerald, about six miles long and half a mile 
wide. 

At the half-way house my companions all " took a 
drink," except one ranchman who held the horses. 
Cold w^ater was brouf^ht for him and me. He cam.e 

o 

from Walpole, N. H., and Mr. P. from Charlemont. P. 
has a son going to Denver. I was amused to see the 
whole party receive as news a very garbled account of 
poor Senter's accident, of which we had brought the 



222 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

first tidings. A moment's reflection would have shown 
them that there coukl have been no later word. 

At Murphy's, Senter was reported "out of danger." 
Mr. Garfield's son had a tin-can full of tiny chipmunks, 
a quarter of the size of ours at home. He amuses him- 
self by digging tarantula nests out of the bank. These 
are made of clay, glazed inside, and have a close-fitting 
cover with a perfect hinge, and a sort of staple into 
which Mrs. Spider thrusts a leg when she wishes to de- 
cline company. The boys cut these out of the bank, 
when the spider opens the door and departs. They do 
not harm her, and she does not resent this perplexing 
interference. 

At Murphy's we found -excellent food and clean 
rooms, which last the mosquitoes enjoyed as well as 
ourselves. The bread, the baked beans, the salad, the 
salt fish dressed with cream, as well as the tea and 
coffee, were all delicately prepared and most grateful to 
one starved atom of humanity. 

Murphy s to StocJdon, Sept. 20, 1880. — I rose at half- 
past two this morning. The landlord refused to furnish 
me with hot water before starting ; so, much against my 
will, I breakfasted on cold chicken and cracker crumbs 
steeped in brandy. A true temperance reform will 
never be practical till people understand the need many 
people have of internal stimulation. Hot water will 
often supply it sufficiently ; but at present, unfortunately, 
it is easier to carry a flask of brandy than to command 
hot water. 

There was a good deal of delay in starting. Sat- 
urday the load was so light that I was taken into 
the proprietor's private carriage, and the coach sent 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 223 

round a longer way to collect the mail. This morning 
it was so Ibcavy that the same course was adopted. A 
buckboard went for the mail, to join us at Aldersville ; 
and we went down the Grade. As we went past the 
house, Mr. S. pointed out Douglass's Flat behind it, 
where from a little placer or valley surface, scarce 
half-a-raile wide and two miles long, more than ten 
millions in gold have been taken out ! He said all this 
money had been honestly earned by men who worked 
hard until they secured a competence, and went East 
to invest it. All this gold was taken out in small bean- 
shaped nodules. When they got down so low that 
water showed itself, it could no longer be profitably 
worked. A ranchman from Sonora was in the coach. 
He said that in ploughing his own farm he got from 
two to three ounces of gold a day, without at all intend- 
ing it ; and that near him men were constantly working 
where bits were washed out as large as a watermelon 
seed, but pure and polished. They had found two hun- 
dred and fifty dollars worth in one lump, and chopped 
it up ! 

And now a more glorious gold glimmered in the sky. 
Rose-color and ashes of roses mingled and shot through 
the gold. All the blue was flecked with gauzy white, 
the full moon hanging like a sphere of impalpable mist. 
In such soft glory as I had never seen in California I 
sat on Gibson's porch taking a second breakfast of fruit 
and pure spring water, while the rest were eating hot 
meats within. When we started again I got up on the 
1)0X with the driver and a young girl who came in 
from Aldersville on the buckboard. Quail were on all 
sides of us, innocent of a gun, — running, flying, sidling 
towards a covert. One side-hill swarmed with magpies. 



224 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

A bird as large as a pigeon ran across the road ; tliey 
said it was the meadow lark, with " a few sweet notes." 

The young girl began to talk. " The girls were living 
out. Webb hired them out and took their money. If 
her father did that she would n't stand it." 

"He needs it, don't he? "said the driver. 

" I suppose so ; but I would n't stand it." 

^' Yoic are eighteen," said the driver. 

I then asked a few questions, and found that this girl's 
father was a ranchman at Copperopolis. She had taken 
a first-class certificate at fifteen, had gone to the State 
Normal School at San Jose, and at eighteen had begun 
to teach. She is now twenty, and earns one hundred 
dollars a month for the six months the school lasts. I 
was not only shocked by her free ways with the driver, 
which I do not describe because I could not describe 
them without giving a false impression, but by her very 
untidy dress. It was not only a soiled, but a ragged 
" best dress " put into common wear. A clean calico — 
skirt and sacque — costs so little and looks so fresh ! 
She boards at T.'s ranch. As we drove in at the gate 
Mrs. T. stood there with the mail in her hand, — a bright 
woman speaking with a sweet, clear voice. The young 
teacher, who had been away to spend Sunday, got off 
here. She had still a mile to walk to reach her pupils, 
and, as she said, felt much more like going to bed ! At 
the beginning of the term she had registered forty-five 
pupils, but " only fifteen held on." 

" Did the girl come ? " she asked of Mrs. T. 

" Yes, she has come and gone," was the placid reply. 

" Why, in the world ! " — began the teacher. 

" Nobody knows why," returned Mrs. T. " Colonel, 
do you know of a girl to take care of children ? I have 
a good Chinaman." 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 225 

" I might," replied the colonel, who was also the stage- 
driver, oracularly ; and we rolled away. 

Eanchwomen have their troubles it appears. The 
colonel said that all the young girls found the ranches 
too dull, and would not stay at home if they could earn 
money in any other way. I asked if they put by any 
money. " They hardly can," he answered ; '' a teacher 
must dress well ! " I remembered what I had just 
seen, and wondered if he were quizzing me. 

The sun was very hot, and at the Reservoir I got 
inside the stage again. I can give no idea of the bad 
road or the hard coach. The Sonora coach drove up at 
the moment. There were twenty passengers on her, 
w^ith their baggage ; and we had not enough to keep us 
steady, but flew about like so many tortured shuttle- 
cocks. 

" I should think you would be glad to take some of 
those people," I said to the driver. 

" I don't think I shall," he answered rudely ; and it 
soon came out that this coach was an opposition to our 
older line. We were both a little short of time, and 
wdien '' Sonora " stopped to let a passenger gather some 
grapes, we drove rapidly by, got out of her dust, and as 
soon as we had distanced her taunted her by loitering 
through the " water waste," w^hich crossed the road like 
a river, to " set our wheel-tires." 

I wish I could give you any idea of the amount of 
partridge and quail wdiicli I saw on this journey. They 
seemed to be in thousands ; they were so tame that they 
ran under our wheels. The gray rocks turned brown 
under their pretty backs, and they kept the stubble in 
constant motion by their flight through the fields. 

In our coach was a man so far gone with consump- 
15 



226 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

tion that I dreaded tlie end every moment. When we 
reached the cars at Milton, he was lifted out more dead 
tlian alive. I slept all the way from Milton to Stock- 
ton, so I shall not reiterate my observations on the 
scenery. There dear Cousin Will met me, and took me 
and the trout home. As soon as I had had my bath I be- 
gan to write to you. Mrs. S. came as jolly as ever, and 
was utterly amazed that I had borne the journey at all. 
It has certainly relieved the local congestion. 

I found my mirror garlanded with wonderful grapes 
from the De Costas. I cannot say one word for their 
taste, when I remember the same sorts in our Ashton 
grapery. 

Stockton to Los Angeles, Sept. 21, 1880. — I should 
never have got my early breakfast, if dear Minnie her- 
self had not risen with the dawn, a pure incarnation of 
something much better than Venus ! When it was over 
we walked about six blocks to the slouch, and, treading 
daintily over a catamaran, got into a small row-boat, 
where we sat stiHy erect. 

The sloughs, or slews, of Stockton and its neighbor- 
hood are a delta formed by the ancient drainage of pre- 
historic seas, at the time the Coast Eange was lifted. So 
distinct are all the fluvial marks that it is easy to im- 
agine the Coast Eange still dripping with water ; and 
the Rocky Mountains themselves are only a still older 
coast range, as their clam beds and oyster flats show. 
The mysterious thing about it all is, that the whole 
looks so recent, — no parasites, no tender grass or herbs 
covering the scars or clothing the naked limbs of either 
"lift." 

I hear people say that this is because the air is so 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 227 

dry ; but it is rather to be traced to the sulphurous and 
alkaliue elements in the soil uplifted. We rowed down 
the slough some three miles to a fruit ranch on an 
island, owned by an old Scotchman named Crozier, and 
called " Rough and Ready." The surface was untroub- 
led, except when a small steamer crossed our path and 
sent us tossing. It was precisely like a grand canal. 
The object of the excursion was to show me what cul- 
tivation could accomplish in this locality. • This island 
of sixteen hundred acres was once a mere tuli swamp. 
It is now a forest of apple, peach, pear, plum, and fig 
trees, a tangle of every kind of grape, with a bewilder- 
inf( resemblance to the Enolish Coteswold. 

Two fig trees, about twenty years old, completely 
shade Mr. Crozier's little home. He is a bachelor, and 
a deacon of the Presbyterian church ; and the winter 
storms are never heavy enough to prevent him from 
rowing down to Stockton to his Sunday work. We 
strolled under the trees a long way, until we came to 
the steam-engine which irrigates the whole. A little 
beyond this we went through a hedge and into a field, 
where we had a fine view of the tuli swamp. This is, 
I suppose, an aboriginal word, since no European lan- 
cjuaoe acknowledi^es it. It designates a tall reed, out of 
which people tried to make paper at one time. It is 
now used principally by the nursery men, who pack 
their young trees in it for market. The swamp made 
me think of Lake Sirbonensis and Pharaoh's sunken 
chariots. Sportsmen with heavy boots often find them- 
selves entangled. 

Turning back we travelled through plantations of 
pepper, tomato, and sweet pepper, which latter is a 
sort of cross between the sharp pepper and the to- 



228 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

mato, across great vineyards to the other side of the 
island, and so round to the house again. We brought 
in many wild-flowers, and found an evening prim- 
rose about four feet high, covered with pure golden 
bloom ! Each corolla was at least two and a half inches 
in diameter. While we rested under his fig trees, in 
a wholly delicious air such as I have felt nowhere 
else, Crozier went into his vineyard and brought back 
a bushel basket of grapes for us to lunch upon. I 
am sorry to say that after I had tasted them tliey 
tempted me no longer with their lovely glow of jewelled 
color. Nettie sat binding her bouquet; her flowers were 
crimson, purple, orange, yellow, scarlet, and blue, — all 
nameless so far as the party could tell. We floated 
back, and found it hard to say farewell to Mr. C, from 
whom we parted in the bows of the catamaran. 

After lunch I drove once more to the cemetery to 
take a last look at its green sentinels, which remind 
me very much of those in Mr. Hunnewell's garden at 
Wellesley. They seem suitable at the graveside. 

Will came home early, bringing great bunches of new 
sorts of grapes for me to taste or carry away. I can see 
that I disgust them all by my lack of faith in the vine- 
yards. 

After an early dinner, during which we sat with our 
sweet cousins for the last time, Will went with us to the 
Southern train. It is not often that so much of my soul 
goes into my kisses as went into those with which we 
parted. 

A woman who had a child with the whooping cough 
pressed near us at the dep6t. When at last we made our 
way into the sleeping-car at Lathrop, there was no lower 
berth for either of us. To protect K from the contagion 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 229 

I hurried her into an upper berth and sat up two hours 
waiting; for a man to come in from the smokincj-car who 
was said to prefer his pipe to his pillow. Finally a fel- 
low-passeiiger went in search of him, and, after unwind- 
ing several fathoms of red tape, returned with the man's 
orders to the consequential porter tliat the berth should 
be made up for me. For tlie first time in my life I felt 
indebted to tobacco ! But not a step wouhl the porter 
stir until he had the berth ticket, so away went my 
friend again. This useful person and Mr. Lockhart will 
leave us at Mohave. After four days and nights of travel 
and "camping out" they are to "prospect a mine" in 
"Dead Man s Valley." What cheerful names our miners 
give their haunts ! We have also a young woman going 
to her husband in Xevada. She doesn't know where 
to find him, but seems to have plenty of friends ; has 
just paid $4.65 extra on one of her trunks, and will 
send the other by freight. Her ticket, including her 
berth, has cost her S25.50 for the five hundred miles to 
Los Angeles ! One would think her trunk might go 
too. Surely the Eastern roads might exclaim like the 
German landlady in H. H.'s story : " Oh, I have been 
much fool ! No more I give good chicken ! " Under 
my daughter's berth slept an English miner's wife with 
two healthy babies, both in arms. She had been down 
in the city to await the advent of the younger and was 
on her way back to the mines. 

A French Jewess with four children and a servant were 
on the road to Los Angjeles. All had mac^nificent black 
eyes, but were otherwise six as ugly mortals as ever 
lighted on the planet. The oldest child, a girl of eleven, 
was friglitfully ugly, and always dragging about a baby 
of two years almost as big as herself. She was so fond 



230 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

of him that her whole face overflowed with loveliness 
whenever she took him, in spite of her twisted mouth 
and bad skin. 

I rose at five and made my toilet without much com- 
fort in a dirty dressing-room. All nif>ht the olowino- full 
moon had shown us only a succession of rough alkaline 
plains, as bare as the desert at Humboldt of everything 
except a few tufts of sage-brush. Now the Coast Eange 
came in view, lookino- fresh from the swirl of raoino: 
waters. Then tufts of demoralized yucca starred the 
plain. Finally we ran into the bowels of the earth, 
passing through tunnel after tunnel till at last we 
reached the wonderful loop in the Tehachapian spur, 
and climbed it spirally. We penetrated it l)y tunnel, 
and then, making a complete revolution, crossed the 
summit over the roof of the tunnel. 

For twenty miles the grade here is one hundred and 
sixteen feet to a mile, and it is claimed that not only a 
greater difficulty is conquered here than at Cape Horn 
on the Central Pacific, but tliat it is conquered by work 
■of unsurpassed excellence. The road over the Styrian 
Alps from Vienna to Trieste is a little like it, but even 
there the road lias no occasion to " climb its own back." 
The canon of the creek is most picturesque, but there are 
no words wherewith to describe the individualities of 
these oft-repeated wonders. 

Soon after we passed the lake of the same name. It 
is now only a long, narrow bed of salt, which is dug out 
and used for everything except the curing of meat. As 
the road turned and twisted among the hills, the sun was 
first on one side of us and then on the other. As my 
daughter's berth was on the opposite side of the car from 
mine, I had an understanding with my friend from 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 231 

" Dead Man's Valley " that I might use either seat, as 
the sun made necessary. This outraged the porter's 
sense of propriety. Having had a night's rest he thought 
I ought to confine myself to my daughter's seat. Find- 
ing me quietly impervious to his hints, he walked over 
to N. and asked if I was any relation to Captain Dall. 

"Which Captain Dall?" said K,for we all understand 
that two or three white-haired Swedes of this name have 
made themselves well known as pioneers in the naviga- 
tion of the West coast, as well as my son. 

"Why, Captain Bill, or Captain John, or any of 'em !" 
impatiently returned my lord. " Not the least," said N. 
" I thought so," responded the porter in a loud voice and 
with a satisfied chuckle. " Them is such experienced 
travellers they'd never think of taking a gentleman's 
place all day and all night too ! " 

"Dead Man's Valley" got its name from a party of em- 
igrants who wandered into it in the early days, and could 
never find their way out. It is four hundred feet heloiu 
the level of the sea ! At Mohave the mountains open 
to a wider placer, spotted by frequent mining sliafts and 
as many yucca palms, — awkward, straggling pillars of 
tawny gray. Here our miners left us. To the east are 
conical summits of the loveliest shape, floating in a sea 
of mist. 

There had not been a drop of rain for seven months, and 
every grain of sand seemed alive. Far away a Chinaman's 
picturesque wash, consisting of blouses of scarlet and 
blue cotton, was stretched along a line. It seemed as if 
the clothes might turn to flame. This Mohave palm — 
wdiich is really a sort of yucca — is very fibrous, and used 
to be sent to a Boston paper-mill, but proved too brit- 
tle for use. There is also all alonc>" this road an abund- 



232 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

ance of yucca gloriosa and yucca filamcntosa, — the latter 
tlie lovely panicle of moon-fed blossoms which jMargaret 
Fuller immortalized at Jamaica Plain. Its fullest bloom 
and sweetest odors greet only the full moon. Farther 
soutli it grows to fifteen feet in height, and twelve hun- 
dred blossoms have been found on a single stalk. I wish 
Margaret had seen it. When she delighted in Manitou- 
lin Island, she little knew what worlds were left to con- 
quer. How strange it seems that she not only never 
saw, but never even heard of the hills and canons I have 
seen to-day ! On the summit of Tehachapi there is a 
salt lake. A little beyond, at Cameron, the road goes 
through a crack made by an earthquake ; and at Lancas- 
ter, through a cut of clialky-looking rock brought up by 
an earthquake in 1868, half-buried trees are to be seen, 
and the traces "of the shock may be discovered for miles 
along the road. Deer and bear are plentiful here. 

Now came a ledge of rocks with streaks of white; 
then oak glades and bees. Cacti broke out along 
the hills, which are washed out queerly like those 
in Colorado. Tlie summit is harder than the slope. 
The rain has washed away the latter, and left a row 
of conical chimney caps. At one place the head 
of a sphinx protruded from the soil. A part of 
the shoulder showed itself. More tunnels, then a 
semicircle of hills, — low, sharp, and overlapping one 
another like tlie card-houses our children build on the 
dinner-table at night. Everything looked green. We 
pierced the Coast Eange by a tunnel a mile and a half 
long. The plain opened. Again I saw the showy 
leaves of the euphorbia and the group of sunny, golden 
flowers that rose like beams of light from the mesa of 
Colorado. 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 233 

Between tlie hills the Mission of San Fernando rises 
surrounded by a grove of orange trees. At the little 
town the cars paused. Vast walls of prickly pear rose 
beside the way. They had a dark, dull, red blossom, 
set thick on the edges of the platter-shaped leaves. The 
Indians use the leaves to eat from. Further on, large 
fruit which tastes like a mango, or sub-acid pear, re- 
placed the fallen flowers. The mountains became ma- 
jestic, and below them I saw what looked like the 
channel of a dead river. I smelled salt air, — an odor 
which has not reached me before on this coast. We 
rolled into Los Angeles, and while I was gathering up 
m}^ parcels I felt a tap on my shoulder, and both bags 
were taken out of my hand. 

It was Mr. Severance, who asserted that lie recognized 
my back hair ! Across the road Mrs. S. sits in her car- 
riage, and in a moment more we were w^hirled away to 
the boarding-house our friends had taken for us. Then 
they w^ent back to take home Mr. and Mrs. L. wdth their 
baby. Tliese last have been at Monica all summer. 

We passed old adobe houses, without glass ; some- 
times without shutters. They were bare; and, although 
in ruins, not a spear of grass or leaf of creeper seems 
ever to liave grown upon them. I shall never believe it 
is because the air is dry, for everything whicli I possess 
of steel or silver tarnishes in the heavy fog, whicli leaves 
nightly pools of water on roof and terrace on every part 
of the coast. Before the Severances left, I found that 
I must probably give up my long stay at Los Angeles. 
The boats go to Santa Barbara only once in five days. 
The first one goes on Friday, the 24th ; the next on the 
Wednesday following. It was a great disappointment ; 
but after we w^ere left alone, N. and I decided that we 



234 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

must go on Friday. We lunched, made a hurried toilet, 
and sent for a carriage. We drove first through Cliilds's 
fruit ranch, — a perfectly level orchard with wide car- 
riage roads. Pears, apples, peaches, plums, and grapes 
were growing with encouraging profusion. I wanted to 
see if the pretty things tasted as line as they looked, and 
the gardener brought me his arms full. They had a 
briglit, sweet flavor, better than I had expected to find it ; 
but the apples evidently knew they were not at home. 
I saw almost no weeds ; the few the gardener called 
such were very lovely flowers ! 

At Wolfstill's orano-e ranch, of two hundred acres, w^e 
saw immense avenues of orange trees more than twenty 
years old. We got out of the carriage to look at them, 
as they had just ploughed up the avenues. From the 
okler part of this grove Wolfstill claims to have netted 
twenty thousand dollars only last year. He has beside 
almonds, olives, figs, grapes, lemons, and limes, as well as 
younger orange groves. 

Wolfstill lives in a very unpretending house, and is 
only a workingman. After taking a general view of the 
town, we were struck by the small, mean-looking houses 
and large gardens ; by all manner of superb climbers, 
blossoming in scarlet, blue, purple, rose-color, and gold ; 
and by Monterey cypresses trimmed into hedges, cones, 
pyramids, pineapples, peacocks, and the like, in the old 
stiff Italian way. 

I have often wondered where the home of the bees 
is. Since I tasted the honey of Hymettus, which is 
stimulating and tonic because the honey is derived 
from the blossoms of the thyme, I have wondered why 
the " bee masters " so seldom make any attempt to 
decide the character of the crop. This would be easily 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 235 

done by the vegetation placed within reach. Before I 
came into tlie Southern counties, I heard a great deal 
about houey made of orange blossoms ; but when I got 
to Los Angeles, no one knew anything about it. And I 
am inclined to believe that the finest honey is only that 
which is made near clover fields, or when the greatest 
variety of blossoms are out. 

I was much astonished to be told that land good for 
notliing else was good for bees, which are glad to rob 
the white sage, the sumac, and a tliousaud nameless 
things which bloom in the gidches of the hills. The 
bees begin to work about the middle of April ; and in 
May the keepers begin to take honey once in ten days. 
I give these particulars without knowing whether they 
differ from those in other localities. 

In 1853, a Mrs. Shelton is said to have carried two 
hives into Santa Clara County. One of her hives was 
sold in San Francisco for one hundred and fifty dollars ! 
The next year, honey for one dollar a pound ; and very 
grateful it v/as to a population that had neither butter, 
nor apple sauce, nor maple sugar. All the bees in 
California are said to have come of this stock. Six 
years ago the State had hardly enough for its own need. 
In 1877 there were only twenty-two ranches, where 
there are now five hundred; and last year several ship- 
loads were sent out of the country. There are said to 
be two hundred thousand hives in the Southern coun- 
ties and a crop of at least three million pounds is 
expected. 

Before going home we drove to the height from 
which Fremont once commanded the city, when, at 
the time of the Mexican invasion, he aided Stockton 
to secure the country to the United States. The old 



236 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

breastworks command a wide view of the town and 
the mountains. Far away on the Western horizon, 
under fast gathering fogs, a line of light indicated the 
Pacific. I had expected to be much nearer to it. 

Los Angeles, Sept. 23, 1880. — AVe had just started for 
a photographer's, when we met Mr. Severance and the 
carriage. Thinking it very likely that we should decide 
to go to-morrow, they had come in all ready for a pic- 
nic ; and so without a w^ord we were off. 

We went first to the San Gabriel Mission, out over 
the half-desert road to the foot-hills on the right of the 
town. Hundreds of tiny squirrels, who seemed far 
more like prairie dogs, lifted bushy tails over their 
backs and liitted away to their holes. 

The hills are browu, rising out of a dry plain ; but 
their outlines are broad, and give an indescribable sense 
of freedom. At last we struck the main street of San 
Gabriel, and came upon the usual mixed population, — 
Spanish, Indian, Negro, and Chinese. The aristocratic 
adobe houses, which were built for the early Spaniards, 
are now the wash-houses of the Chiuese. AVe passed a 
fantastic building erected for educational purposes by 
a half-crazy man, and called the Moneyan Institute. 
It is a centre piece witli two rounded ends, not ill- 
looking in itself; but on the road is a gateway inscribed 
with fantastic characters, which stand for all the lan- 
guages in the world. 

The " Mission of San Gabriel " is an attractive build- 
ing, like all those erected by the old Franciscans. The 
priest's house adjoins the cliurch. We went there for 
the key, and were told by the handmaiden who showed 
us round, that we should be expected to deposit " an 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 037 

aim !" Like tlie Mission of San Dolores, this is a long 
narrow building made of adobe, covered with plaster, 
buttressed picturesquely, and, like all the rest, a little 
more than a century old. Its long side is on the street. 
Its lower wall, or bell tower, — which is not a tower at 
all, only a thick wall containing niches for bells, — is next 
the priest's house. It is gabled, and has six bells, — one 
in the very peak, two a little below, and three more 
still lower down, which gives it a sort of pyramidal 
air of strength. The buttressed wall ends on the street 
corner, with a hioh external stair built of brick and 
adobe, which leads to a gallery for the choir across the 
narrow end. Between this stair and the wall some 
pepper trees were growing. The whole street was 
shaded by their feathery plumes. The graveyard is 
behind the church. 

Inside there are some old frescos which look like de- 
funct wall-paper, with their William Morris's olives and 
blues. There are also very fair copies of old Italian pic- 
tures of the saints. The principal altar is opposite, the 
choir and next the bell tower. Above it, in the centre, 
INIary with her child is carved and painted ; to the right, 
St. Anne ; and to the left, San Joachim. Over Mary is 
San Gabriel adorned with a pair of wings ; over Anne is 
Anthony of Padua ; and over San Joachin, San Xavier. 
These upper carvings with their canopies are exceed- 
ingly well cut in wood ; the guide called them ivood-cuts, 
and said they were brought from the city of Mexico. 
They strongly resemble those from the old Jesuit Cath- 
edral in Arizona, which S. S. Cox has described. 

We drove off over a section of a race course to the 
great wine and brandy ranch of Mr. Rose, now carried 
on in the name of Stern & Eose, the former partner 



238 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

furnishing additional capital. The orange trees here 
are nearly ruined by the scale ; and certainly, if Cali- 
fornia throughout its length and breadth trusts too 
little to the spade and too much to irrigation, this 
man would seem to have been insane on the sub- 
ject of irrigation. He Walls up a sort of pit about 
tlie root of each tree, and leads the water into it. It 
does not seem to drain away, but to stand, and must 
ruin the trees. We have all seen the same ruin over- 
take an ivy in a flower pot, for the same reason. His 
famous avenue, often photographed, and perhaps half a 
mile long, consists of old orange trees, every one of 
which has been cut back on account of the scale. It 
was a deplorable sight. 

We paused a moment at his pretty little villa, 
and asked leave to see the distilling, and then 
went on to the works. Outside, great carts were 
standing, heaped with grapes. Vineyards, olive groves, 
and orangeries stretched out on every side over 
dimpling valleys and crested hills. The view was 
picturesque at every point; but I longed to see the 
laughing girls empty their baskets into the casks, where 
men would trample out the grapes with crimson feet. 
AVe wqnt into the crushing room. Last year one hun- 
dred Chinamen were employed merely to pick the 
grapes off the stems. To-day a sort of wire basket 
catches all the stems and throws them out. I wish I 
could see the day when all the drinking could be done 
by machinery ! Tlie superintendent thought this ma- 
chine something very new ; but Oswald Crawford 
described the same thing in Burgundy some time ago. 
When the Emperor of Brazil was at the Centennial, he 
was urged to take home some reaping machines. He 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 239 

shook his head, and said, " My most anxious duty is to 
mcd-e work for my people." I have always remembered 
this to his honour; for although machines must come, 
yet a liberal thoughtfulness, a Christian sympathy, for 
working people might well regulate a too rapid sub- 
stitution. California is no longer a good country for 
the working man. On all sides T hear the cry, " A man 
needs to be rich to live here." There is a large unem- 
ployed population. 

The juice of the grapes on the Eose vineyard runs 
into eiglity casks, each of which holds 2,000 gallons, or 
160,000 gallons in all. From this the brandy is dis- 
tilled. I am amazed at the immense quantity of wine 
made. This year shows 5,673 acres of vineyards in 
this county, 53,000,000 pounds of grapes, 2,500,000 
gallons of wine, and 300,000 gallons of grape brandy. 
The wines are mostly light, and I should have been glad 
to see men drinking^ them rather than the strong^ and 
often adulterated spirits sold over the counters of San 
Francisco. I have been offered wine in nearly every 
house I have entered, but nowhere have I seen the wines 
of the country. I have inquired about this, and my hosts 
reply, " Oh 1 we know how California wines are made." 
I can assure them that California wines are made ex- 
actly like European wines. They require some ad- 
ditional sugar; and that involves strengthening the 
percentage of alcohol with their own brandy that the 
wines may keep, which can hardly be called adulter- 
ation. I am told that the number of acres devoted to 
grapes has not increased for some years ; that the yield 
is forty-eight per cent greater than in 1878, but not 
forty-eight per cent better. Sonoma, Santa Cruz, Santa 
Clara, and other counties tell the same story. 



240 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

The superintendent, seeing that I knew something of 
household distilling, wished to talk with me about 
orange-flower water, and I promised to send him some 
receipts for making it. When we came away, they 
brought us a tray heaped with Malvoisie and sweet- 
water grapes. The " Mission " grapes are not yet ripe. 
Mr. Dugdale assures me that the proper name for these 
is Black Morocco. 

Eeturning, we went through a longer and still longer 
avenue of oranges. Hundreds of acres are devoted to 
the fruit by this firm. A thousand acres have lately 
been planted with vines ; and, besides this, the firm take 
all the grapes tlie neighbors will sell. 

We ran through other orange orchards belonging to a 
Mr. Titus, who has been much afraid that his neighbor's 
" scales " would run across the road and attack his fruit. 
He liimself uses far less water than the owners of the 
diseased plantations. 

From hence we drove through a plashing pool of 
water into the orangery of a Mr. Ford, who emigrated 
from Dedham, Mass., and came to greet us with the 
bright women of his household. He gave us ripe 
oranges, pomegranates, and Chasselas grapes. The crop 
of oranges was gathered long ago, but in all the orch- 
ards some of the finest fruit is left on the trees as a 
treat to unexpected guests. This ought to be very 
sweet, and this plantation is celebrated for the quality 
of its fruit; but truth compels me to state that the grain 
of this fruit was more like that of a shattuck than an 
oransje. 

The Fords have been here six years. Mr. Ford sunk 
an Artesian well behind his house as soon as he came, 
and sells " water rights " as well as fruit. His mother. 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 241 

sixty years of age, works as hard as anybody. The 
rapidity with which everything grows liere, the beauti- 
ful color of the fruit, tempts and delights the ranch- 
man. The climate and the flowers are so delicious, 
and so well repay the care which provides water, that 
all the women are tempted to overwork. 

Next we swept round the superb glacis on which 
stands the house of De Earth Schorb. Schorb came 
from Baltimore, and has a Spanish wife." Cries of 
wondering admiration burst from our lips. There is 
a- semi-circle of mountains sweeping the horizon in 
front of this house, as grand as that of which Pike's 
Peak forms the centre on the mesa at Colorado Springs ; 
and the foreground is not a brown barren, but a tangled 
wonder of orange groves and vineyards, green as sum- 
mer, and glistening in the sun. This range of moun- 
tains has been dimly visible for five miles. It now 
rises with supernatural charm. We cannot bear to turn 
away. Oh, how much at home the old Spaniards must 
have found themselves in this mountain country ! The 
Sierra Nevada parted the waters of the Gaudalquiver 
from those of the Xucar, between the Mediterranean 
and the Atlantic, before it undertook to divide the San 
Joaquin from the Sacramento. Every mesa, or valley 
must have talked to them of the Pyrenees. In Portu- 
ral, on the road to Setubal from Palmella, the soil and 
rocks glow in red, purple, pearl color, and gold. How 
homelike must have seemed the tall cliffs in Arizona 
and the Garden of the Gods ! 

The yellow-top boots, worn to defend the legs from 
the prickly pear in the old country, had to be replaced 
here by wooden stirrups of gigantic proportions, which 
I found as far up as Leadville. Many a sleepy old 

16 



242 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

fellow, astride his donkey, must have rubbed his eyes 
when he first came upon tlie Mohave Desert, and won- 
dered if those were the identical cacti and yuccas that 
he last saw in Spain, on the Sierra Morena ! 

Life would not be long enough to look, if landscape 
and sunlight and far stretching verdure were always 
like that offered to us to-day from the. Schorb terrace. 
Our way then led through the Wilson estate, owned by 
one of the best cultivators of this region, who has mar- 
ried into the Schorb family. About one hundred acres in 
oranges here ; and we go out of it into the " Wilderness," 
as tangled a maze of wild vines, live-oaks, and alders, 
with a sweet spring near, as one could find at this sea- 
son in the heart of Massachusetts. Here we ate our 
lunch of bread and fruit, took out our horses and rested 
for an hour before we went on to Passadina. Near Passa- 
dina, alas ! is the wonderful raisin ranch carried on by 
Miss Austin ; but I had no time to visit it. None of 
us were in the least tired. Our light spring-wagon, 
lightly coyered, was carried by our two fine horses as 
easily as their own harnesses. 

I cannot tell how long w^e were in driving through 
this Wilderness. It reminded me not only of many 
a summer route in New England, but of a wild drive 
along the " benches " of Lake Superior years ago, where 
tree was looped to tree by tangled vines, and trunks of 
prehistoric age stood sweet and green in the delicious 
coolness. 

We went from the Wilderness to the high school, 

where Mrs. Jenny C. Carr, late Assistant Superintendent 

of Schools for the State, is trying an experiment after the 

' fashion of Quincy, Mass. Her husband, Dr. Carr, was 

the actual Superintendent, and made her his deputy. 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 243 

She was most useful, popular, and admired throughout 
the State, until political cliques were created to displace 
her. Then she came here to Passadina, — an Indian 
word, I believe, which means " key of the mountains." 
An Indiana colony began a temperance settlement here 
six years ago, much in the same way that one was begun 
at Colorado Springs. 

Mrs. Carr has travelled with Muir, who is preparing 
a work on the glaciers of the Western coast, and is sup- 
posed to know a great deal about the mountains and 
the Yosemite. I felt very sorry not to see and talk 
with her for a longer time. A teacher was lately 
needed for the high school, and Mrs. Carr fills the place 
for the present. We drove directly to the school. It 
was recess, but some of the children went for Mrs. Carr. 
She at once came out into the sunshine, with a face as 
strong and cheery as the sun itself A compact little 
woman she, in a bright calico dress made with such 
simplicity as it was a pleasure to see. She did not at 
all like my brief visit. Had been giving the children 
a lesson in the geography of Passadina ! They had no 
idea that geography had anything to do with the place 
they lived in, and were much surprised at being asked 
to draw a map of the school-yard. 

Mrs. Carr has had forty acres of land here under cul- 
tivation for the last two years. She has already canned 
and dried tons of fruit. Never was there a place in 
which trees were in such a hurry to bear. I wish my 
New Hampshire cousins could see it. It is well the 
Spaniards settled here ; no other people of thart time 
would have known how to deal with the alkaline soil. 
Passadina is a vast cultivated plain. 

We drove directly through Mrs. Carr's plantations, 



244 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

filled with all manner of rare trees and vines. Professor 
Carr sat at his desk in a library half filled with cabinets. 
A nightshade with lovely purple blossoms climbed over 
the porch and festooned the eaves. The Professor — a 
fine, benevolent looking man — brought us many kinds of 
grapes to taste ; among others the Zinfanel, looking like 
a ruby, half sweet, half sour, from which the finest 
clarets are made. We drove on through raisin ranches 
and vineyards. The company have brought water 
down from the mountains, and every purchase of first- 
class land entitles the purchaser to a water right. Pro- 
prietors of second-class land must buy this right in 
addition. 

Vines, oranges, lemons, limes, pomegranates, figs, al- 
monds, English walnut trees, and pepper groves make 
this settlement one of the loveliest spots on earth. We 
went through charming gardens, by houses bowered in 
roses, laurestinus, dacomas, and so on, thirty feet high ; 
but words mean nothing to one who lias never seen it ! 
We passed the Gilmore place, and another owned by 
the nephew of Jewett, who published "Uncle Tom's 
Cabin." All along, in addition to the tropical lux- 
uriance, there was a semi-circle of mountains on the 
horizon like that in Colorado, but finer in its contrast 
witli the cultivated mesa and hill-sides. We drove 
across the Arrojo Seco or Dead Eiver, with its mighty 
hidden beds of lava. Mountains sprang up at the right 
as we entered the town at its eastern end, and went 
across the Los Angeles river to our boarding place. 

I hafd no intention of going to Santa Barbara unless I 
was wanted ; so while Nettie and I packed our hand- 
bags in order to go out to " Eed Eoof " for the niglit, Mr. 
Severance telegraphed for me, as Mr. Peabody had sug- 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 24t 

gested. Red Roof stands at a pleasant drive of three 
miles to the west of the town of Los Angeles. Never saw 
I a prettier picture than that presented when we crossed 
the end of the avenue, Mr. Severance mischievously driv- 
ing on that we might not for a moment suspect that he 
had anything to do with the lovely place. Our shouts 
of delight arrested him. Palms, castor-oil plants, banan- 
as, and yuccas skilfully arranged give a far more tropical 
look to the approach than I have seen anywhere else. 
The long, one-storeyed house is surrounded by a piazza 
broad as a room. Tins is covered by a passion flower, a 
shell flower, a gigantic wistaria, a dacoma, and cleanthus. 
Oh ! that I could but make these flower names glow and 
burn for you, in purple, blue, crimson, and gold as they 
do for me ! On each side of the porch magnificent ivies 
start up, and their giant branches spreading under the 
roof of the piazza tapestry it with verdure. A ham- 
mock hangs in each wing. The centre is furnished as 
if it were a room, — a privilege conferred by the dry 
season which treats upholstery gently. 

Here we were glad to sit for a little while, enjoying 
the unwonted environment. It seemed impossible that 
we could have driven thirty-five miles since morning ; 
and yet wlien we thought of all we had seen, we might 
well have been a week on the way. 

A door opens into a room, half hall, half parlor, with 
floor and wainscoting of red wood. A good Corot 
stands on an easel ; pretty water-colors hang on the 
walls, and skins cover the floor. Behind this is a large 
dining-room. To the right are four bedrooms • to the 
left are the pantries, offices, and so on. The kitchen, 
opening upon a lemon grove, is in the rear of all this. 
Upon the central portion of the roof is a single, good- 



246 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

sized sleeping room built for boys, which goes by the 
name of "the bunk." To this our host's voice summoned 
us speedily that we might see the mountains in sunset 
light " before the fog covered them." I laughed to my- 
self as I ran quickly up, for I knew the fog had curled 
quietly in some time before. It was a superb sight for 
all that, — the summits canopied in gold and purple. 
There were guests at dinner ; some of the neighbors 
came in after ; and then I wrote out notes of one of the 
most delightful days of my life. 

From Los Angeles, via Wilmington*' and the Pacific, to 
Santa Barbara, Sept. 24, 1880. — I heard mocking birds 
before breakfast, and yesterday one swung on the rope 
of the hammock while Virginia lay there reading. I 
rose early. There had been a heavy fog, and steps 
and roof looked as if there had been a shower. • I 
went about picking unl^nown flowers, looking at tlie 
Chinese umbrella tree, and watching the method of 
irrigation. I do not believe that any tropical plants 
are improved by irrigation. I am sure that much 
of the fruit I saw yesterday would be greatly better 
if it were simply " cultivated," — that is to say, well 
spaded about ; but this would probably cost more than 
water. Mr. S. pays two dollars a day for water. 

Soon after breakfast, Mrs. S. and I walked down the 
block to see my friends the W.'s. They live on a prett}^ 
little place, planned a good deal like Eed Koof, but 
less costly and younger. I saw all the children but 
two. Lulie was to have a "musicale" to-night, to 
which I had been invited. The neighbors had sent in 
a dozen watermelons. They had themselves bought a 
bushel basket of grapes for ten cents ! " Tell all our 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 247 

friends," said Mrs. W. laugliing, " at what an expense 
we entertain." How pleasant it was to sit tliere, seeing 
tlie look of far-away faces in the children's eyes ! Safe 
at the bottom of a huge trunk, and tied with a blue 
ribbon, are the little printed love-letters the father of 
tliis family sent me when he was a boy of six. I have 
destroyed many more costly things, but they are safe ! 
How little I thought then that I should ever see him 
a " fruitful olive " in this far-off land. He used to 
come shyly behind me and push his little letter into 
my pocket, as I sat sewing for my own marriage beside 
the sofa where his invalid grandmother lay, full of 
interest in my " seam." How clearly rise the dear faces 
of that far-off time 1 Then California was not, — not a 
modest woman within the borders of the State : and 
now ! 

We walked home. I helped Mr. S. to gather some 
lemons, chiefly that I might say I had done it ; and put 
up some fine stalks of pampas grass, and one or two 
big pomegranates. 

Then we went over to the pretty little house built by 

Miss B . It cost, with half an acre of land, and 

the windmill which irrigates the garden, just $2,800. 
The principal room is a hall running straight through 
the house, with three small rooms on each side ; three 
bedrooms, a parlor, a music room, and a dining-room. 
There is a kitchen separate outside, with a loft over it 
for the one Chinese servant. A ladder leads up to the 
loft from the porch, and this is taken down after the 
servant retires for the night, which prevents all un- 
certainty as to his whereabouts. Two young ladies live 
here alone. 

We gathered the beautiful " bird of paradise flower " 



248 MY FIEST HOLIDAY. 

as we went home. " See how anxious these things are 
to do their duty," said Mr. S. as he met me, and showed 
me a fig tree about a foot high with three ripe figs 
upon it ! 

After lunch there was nothing for it but to prepare 
for departure. I had not seen W. himself yesterday, 
so we drove into his yard that I might at least shake 
hands with my old correspondent. Opposite his ave- 
nue we entered some fine grounds, remarkable for a 
great show of Australian flowers. Don't imagine for 
a moment that California takes any comfort in her own 
flowers, any more than her own wines. Not a bit of 
it. She is nothing in her own eyes, if she cannot show 
you everything Australia or Jaj^an can boast, from the 
cryptomeria to the roc's egg ! 

In town I found a cordial teleoram from Santa Bar- 

o 

bara. Mrs. Severance had on her mantels some bar- 
nacles from Santa Monica, the prettiest match-safes 
that could be devised. I thought of various scientific 
friends who would be delighted with the pink and 
white things, which are between three and four inches 
high and nearly two across, and grow in groups of 
three. So I went into all the stores in a vain search 
for them, but I " created a demand," as the merchants 
say ; and next year travellers who don't know what a 
barnacle is will reap my harvest. 

Santa Barbara, Cal, Sept. 25, 1880.— I think we 
waited in Mr. Severance's carry-all, at the depot, a full 
hour. 

Los Angeles is just a century old. It covers six 
square miles, has sixteen thousand inhabitants, and was 
christened Pueblo de la Eeina de los Angeles, — " Town 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 249 

of the Queen of the Angels," — which was very soon 
shortened by Spanish laziness into its present appel- 
lation. To my great amazement I find it thirty miles 
from the mouth of the Los Angeles River, when I had 
supposed the town was on the Pacific itself. It is in 
a large valley, with two harbors, Santa Monica and Wil- 
mington ; and, with the Sierra in the background, mag- 
nificent views offer themselves whichever way you turn. 
It is the centre of five railways. I think I did not tell 
you yesterday that we passed the Sierra Madre villa, 
eighteen hundred feet above the sea, where a delightful 
liotel is kept for invalids. I am perfectly certain that 
dyspeptics and many chronic invalids will find the dry 
season, during which they can sleep and live out of 
doors, a great advantage here ; but I do not think there 
is a place on this coast fit for people who are sensitive 
to changes of temperature. The inhabitants will not 
own it. The difference between morning or evening 
and noon is very great. Yesterday morning, when I 
rose, the thermometer was only 40° on the piazza at 
Red Roof ; and when I drove into town after lunch it 
was 83° ! This is a common experience on the whole 
length of the coast, including Santa Barbara. 

We were to leave on the cars for Wilmington, and 
then take a tug six miles down the river to the steamer. 
There is great and growing dissatisfaction here with the 
policy of the Railroad. While our journey was under 
discussion, a great deal was said about the indifference 
to public comfort which delayed necessary repairs at 
Santa Monica, and compelled passengers to go to Wil- 
mington. Last year the Legislature appointed a com- 
mittee to inquire into railroad abuses. The committee 
required evidence to be given openly in person, and in 



250 • MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

consequence no one dared to appear before it; and 
nothing of consequence was done. Tlie United States 
has given so much to all the overland roads, that they 
ought to be compelled to be just in dealing. 

Our cars ran down through a sort of delta to Wilming- 
ton. From thence we took a tiny tug to a barge anchored 
six miles away, from which we boarded the steamer for 
Santa Barbara and San Francisco. We were very 
crowded, and it was by no means convenient for 
people with hand baggage. It was very foggy till we 
got out to sea, and quite rough all the way. A full 
moon then made everything lovely, and I would have 
liked to sit up to enjoy it. but the queer long swell of 
this detestable Pacific kept me on my back. I stag- 
gered up now and then to look at the peaks of the 
Sierra Madre and the Coast Eange, garlanded by wreaths 
of fog that were snowy wdiite. 

For the first time since I crossed the Rocky Moun- 
tains, I received the utmost courtesy and attention. 
One of the finest staterooms was put at my disposal. 
The stewardess was a character. She had gone out to 
India with Lord and Lady Campbell ; sailed between 
China, Japan, and San Francisco for six years ; was 
then transferred to the Oregon Line, and was now 
making her first trip South. She did not like it any 
better than I did; but tried to divert my headache by 
telling of Chinese gardens, and of a visit from the 
Mikado, who proposed to her to teach the young prin- 
cesses English ! 

At half-past four this morning she brought me a cup 
of tea, but it was atrocious, and I contrived to dress 
without its help. She and Nettie followed me out to 
the wharf, and put me into a carriage for Mrs. Bug- 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 251 

dale's boarding-house. I shall not forget the drive 
through the soft, half lighted dawn, and gardens heavy 
with mysterious sweetness. I was alone for the first 
time on my journey. 

My ring at the door was answered promptly. I was 
ill enough to go directly to bed, hoping for sleep, but an 
old friend w\as coughing away his life in tlie next room, 
and I had to give it up ; and after a breakfast which 
I made small attempt to eat, my room w^as changed to 
one on the ground floor. How little I realized, as I 
looked out of its windows upon the wilderness of flow- 
ers, that this day was to bring me into close contact 
with a tragedy I shall never forget. 

My headache did not abate. Several callers xame 
in, and each one asked me if I knew Theodore Glancey, 
a young Republican from Illinois, who had come here 
to edit the " Daily Press " through the current cam- 
paign. I did not know him, but he professed to know 
me ; had heard me lecture, was coming to see me ; had 
given me a pleasant notice in his paper, and would be 
in church to-morrow ! Mr. Winchester, whom I re- 
membered with his wife at the West Church in Boston, 
and Mr. Knight, also of Boston, came in with hymn 
books, order of service, etc., and seemed rather per- 
plexed over my prostrate condition. 

I was sure that a good night's sleep would set me up, 
provided I could get a clear two hours for preparation 
in the morning. In the course of our talk, it was 
decided that I should speak of my journey through 
the country, and of the duties of California people ; so 
I began to think about this, and as I lay, prostrate with 
pain, the whole thing arranged itself in my mind. I 
heard each of my visitors speak with affectionate in- 



252 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

terest of Theodore Glancey, who had only been here 
four weeks. I thought a good deal of his painful 
editorial duty, and unconsciously shaped what I had 
to say somewhat for his comfort. 

I dare say that in the little story I have to tell of 
this faithful " Gift of God," you will all think that I 
exaggerate its importance and effect. So you would 
have thought if I had written to you on the morning 
after the battle of Lexington, and told you of John 
Hancock's visit to the parsonage of that little town ! 
It is in obscure moments that history is made ; and 
if the inhabitants of Santa Barbara be but faithful to 
their duty, there is no reason why the events of this 
day shall not constitute the dawn of political regen- 
eration, — may not put an end to the reign of force 
on this great Western coast. 

After dinner Mr. W. came round, with his w^ife 
and a friend, to take me to drive. If anything would 
relieve my pain, it was surely the fresh air. So 
we went out through the town to the mesa, or high 
table-land which commands the Bay. Santa Barbara 
sits, like Naples, a queen of the sea. A semi-circle of 
superb mountains hems her in. Her Bay is full of 
lovely islands, on which are mountains that are high 
enough to shut off the terrible trade-winds. 

To the right hand and to tlie left of this Bay the 
spurs of the Coast Range shoot out into the sea. A 
beach of snowy sand is spread out at her feet, and 
tossing waves of laughing blue, which look like broken 
sapphires, leap over the snow. It is almost too beauti- 
ful to bear. The hills themselves are greener than any 
I have seen in California, and there are many groves of 
live-oak in the hollows by the sea. How glad I am 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 253 

I have not missed this sight ! Keturning, Mr. W. took 
me first throuo-h the grounds of a Mr. Dibbles, who is 
going to put up on the mesa a superb one-storey house 
in the Spanish fashion. Its extensive terraces will com- 
mand both sea and land in a truly royal way. Before I 
was half satisfied with seeing, we turned and drove to 
the old Presidio, or residence of an old Spanish governor, 
where Eichard H. Dana once went to a wedding, which 
he describes in " Two Years Before the Mast." 

The house is of adobe, covered with stucco, and the 
walls are three feet thick. It is built round a court ; 
and the tiled roof is extended over this court so as to 
protect a wide walk, and is sustained on the inner side 
by light pillars. In the centre was once a fountain^ 
and opposite to the entrance hall was an archway 
under the house, through which a carriage might pass 
from the street to the enclosed court. The wood-work 
is of red- wood, carved in a true Moorish fashion ; and 
the ceiling has been frescoed by Indian hands. Some 
modern Goth has colored the red-wood green ! The 
rooms are high and spacious. The whole aspect 
charmed me. 

From this we went to the Santa Barbara Mission, 
which is larger and finer than any I have seen. It 
has many shrines with figures carved in wood, such 
as I have already described. The oddest thing about 
it is the colored rosettes on the ceiling, which look 
exactly like olfl Moorish tiles. Half way up the 
church a Franciscan, with his gray robe and cape, 
his girdle of rope, and his rim of yellow hair, was 
earnestly teaching the catechism to a class of ragged 
Indian boys. The friar might have stepped out of an 
old missal, the boys might have served as models to 



254 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

Murillo, for they were half Spanish, — the words were 
the purest Castilian. Where was I ? I had never ex- 
pected to see all this till I lounged, half dreaming, in 
the courts of the Alhambra ! 

None of the friars were at leisure to show us the 
cloisters, where schools are still kept. 

As we drove into town, Mr. W. stopped at a drug 
store to get me some ammonia. He came out instantly 
with a white face. " Clarence Gray has shot Theodore 
Glancey," he said, " and they say that Glancey must die." 

Alas ! all editorial hardships were over now. This 
friend, so sure to greet me in church to-morrow, T 
should never see with mortal eyes. No one spoke. 
I had seen excited groups of men talking at the street 
corners for the last half hour, but I knew too little of 
Spanish-Mexican ways to make sure it was unusual. 
Silently my friends dropped me at my own door, 
and then, from my horror-stricken host I gleaned what 
follows. 

On the 15th of September, 1880, the RejDublican 
State Convention met at Santa Barbara, and Clarence 
Gray, an Irish lawyer, whose real name is Patrick Mc- 
Ginnis, with many aliases, was nominated for district- 
attorney. It was a disgraceful nomination, on account 
of the character of the man ; and in alluding to it, Sept- 
ember 16th, the " Daily Press" very mildly said : "The 
charity of our silence is more than he can expect." 

That evening Gray met Glancey, and told him that if 
another word of the sort appeared in the paper the town 
would not be large enough to hold them both. On the 
24th the " Press " had occasion to refer to some delay of 
the decision of the Supreme Court in regard to the elec- 
tions of this year ; and added that if " no county elec- 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 255 

tions should be held, the Eepublicans would have this 
compensation that they would be saved the necessity of 
defeating their own candidate, for Santa Barbara would 
not submit to have its county officers chosen from 
amonfy the hoodlums and law-breakers." 

A very mild statement this seems to those who are 
familiar with the courtesies of Western newspapers ; and 
it came out last night. At two o'clock this afternoon, just 
after Glancey had been warned by a friend of mine with 
whom he had been talkinc^ over the service in the Unita- 

o 

rian church to-morrow, he was attacked by Gray in the 
street. When the latter showed a pistol, Glancey seized 
both his wrists, saying, " You shall not shoot an unarmed 
man," and as another person approached Gray, he left 
him and turned to enter the Occidental Hotel. Gray 
fired twice. The first ball shattered Glancey's wrist and 
then passed through his body near the navel ! Gray 
was arrested ; but after being bailed for five thousand 
dollars went gaily about town, shaking hands with his 
hoodlums. 

In talking over this matter with my host, the son of a 
Philadelphia Quaker, he said that the present district- 
attorney was a shiftless fellow who never put any- 
thing through, and that Gray had been nominated 
because of his business capacity, as the whole county 
was impatient over the present state of things. " I 
should have voted for him myself," said Mr. Dugdale, 
" if Glancey had not pointed out the folly of such a 
step." This assassination will not make much impres- 
sion on Eastern people, but it is a very critical thing 
here, — the first time, I believe, such a cold-blooded 
murder has occurred in what may be called the quiet 
New England community of Santa Barbara. 



256 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

Santa Barhara, Sunday, Sept. 26, 1880. — I went to 
bed directly after , dinner last night, but not before it 
was certain that Glancey could not live. Gray was a 
second time arrested ; the town was convulsed with ex- 
citement, and there was loud talk of lynching. Gray 
flinched, like the coward that he is, and begged to be 
put into a dungeon, where the noisy crowd that gath- 
ered about the jail doors could not reach him. The fel- 
low is said to have three undivorced wives living, and 
the poor Irish girl who married him last walked round 
and round the jail all night, hoping to keep off his 
enemies. 

Before breakfast this morning a circular deeply bor- 
dered in black, and bearing the following words, was 
thrust under every door : — 

" Theodore Glancey, 

*' Editor of the Santa Barbara 'Press,' died this Sunday 
morning, Sept. 26th, 1880, from a pistol-shot wound inflicted 
by Clarence Gray. His last words were : ' Tell my friends 
that I die like a man, — die for a principle, and would not go 
back on it now if I could.' " 

George William Curtis, James Freeman Clarke, and 
the men who are stnTf^^linGj like them in New Encjland 
for political purity do not find the cold faces of their 
party very pleasant ; but this poor fellow laid down his 
life for the cause, and was not ashamed. 

And he had known me, he said, " ever since he was 
born." I wish I could have seen him. Of course I had 
not slept, much as I needed it. I had been thinking 
out what I should do, all night. 

The Unitarians here have just fitted up a modest little 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 257 

wooden building, but they had not plastered the walls. 
When they got my telegram, the staging was all up for 
the plaster to go on ; but they removed it, replaced the 
seats, and prepared for a service. It was well filled to- 
day. I made the whole service a funeral service, every 
word of which should bear upon and evolve the thought 
of immortality. My text was from the first chapter of 
Genesis, — " Without form and void." I tried to show 
that this was what tlie world would be without a " Liv- 
ing God"; and that if Death reigned, a "Living God" 
could not be. I was profoundly moved by the aspect 
of my audience. Every mortal in it was sad as if for a 
personal loss, and there were several young mothers in 
the seats with babies in their arms. The last time I 
saw that, I think, was in the Lynnfield church, and I 
remember how the babies crowed now and then, while 
the green branches of the elms, waved by the breeze, 
brushed across the windows. 

When the service was ended, a lady dressed in black, 
about sixty years of age, and with a face streaming 
with tears, came up and took my hand. She 'was silent 
for some instants. " You have done me a great deal of 
good," she said at last. " You do not know me ; you 
will never see me again, but I felt tliat I must come 
and tell you." I begged for her name. She gave it 
very reluctantly, and added that she was from Illinois. 
As she turned away, she continued, " I shall never forget 
one word you said." So it was worth while to lie awake 
all night, — which I had doubted. 

I am sure I never spoke in so hot a place as this 
little chapel proved to-day. 

There was a warm little buzz of welcome and sym- 
pathy from those of the audience who lingered, and I 
- 17 



258 MY FIKST HOLIDAY. 

went home hoping to sleep. But I had several callers. 
Among others came a young girl, who wants to preach ; 
but I could not encourage her, for she has not the natu- 
ral qualifications. No man should aspire to the pulpit 
without a good voice at the start, — and still less should 
any woman. 

Santa Barbara, Sept. 27, 1880. — This morning Mr. 
W. came early with Mrs. W. and a guest to drive 
me about the town ; but it was some time before we 
could do anything except talk over the assassination. 
Although it was one of the loveliest days possible, a 
pall seemed to hang over the town. People muttered 
below their voices at the street corners. Glancey lived 
nineteen hours. About an hour before his death a let- 
ter arrived from his young wife. He had written her 
about moonlight walks upon the lovely crescent beach. 
" Soon," she said in this reply, " we shall be walking 
there together." At this point Glancey said faintly to 
the lady reading, " Stop." After a pause he motioned 
tliat she might go on, and in less than twenty minutes 
after she had ended he was dead ! When I remember 
that his dying words came close upon this tender greet- 
ing, I think they gain an added power. We had to think 
of all this, because the poor young wife will never see 
even his dead face. It has been found impossible to 
embalm the body. 

We went first to the beach. The tide, which is said 
to vary only three feet, is now very high, and we could 
not get down to the lowest sands. From the beach we 
drove over to Montecito, Mrs. Eddy was away, to my 
great regret. Besides being very lovely in themselves, 
her grounds are nestled in a valley green as emerald, and 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 259 

have the most charming outlook over the Bay. I am 
perfectly sure that there is a great deal of fog in Santa 
Barbara, but the residents, who are of course also the 
proprietors, steadily deny it. Yet this morning one of 
them drew my attention to the islands, whose sides were 
wreathed with snowy vapor. " Do look at those moun- 
tains," he said, " it is a hundred days since I saw them 
as plain as that!" I think the variations of temperature 
here quite as great as they are in Los Angeles, though 
the trade-winds are cut off by the islands. It was 42° 
when I rose yesterday morning, and 87° when I got 
home from church ! 

In ordinary seasons life here must be delicious to 
well people. The aborigines thought so, for in 1542 
Cabrillo found this the most densely populated part of 
the coast. At that time there were forty native towns 
within the limits of Santa Barbara County. Like tlie 
harbors on the coast of Maine, this harbor faces the 
south with its soft breezes. The Santa Inez range 
stretches back of the town parallel to the coast for 
seventy miles, and only three miles from it. It is a 
wall three thousand feet high, and spurs shoot down to 
the sea each side the town, not more than a mile and a 
half from each other, and enclose the Bay. Beyond 
this Bay, about twenty-five miles to the south, a group 
of islands rises, and the mountains upon Santa Kosa, 
Santa Cruz, and Anacapa are twenty-five hundred feet 
high, and break the bitter chill of the southern trades. 
Yet these make themselves felt. Here, as at Los An- 
geles, people carry wraps, and do not sit out at night. 
The white chalky cliffs are rosy red at sunset. A few 
foot-hills not hard to climb separate this valley with its 
sloping sands from that of Montecito. The upper part 



2G0 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

of Montecito is seven hundred feet above the sea, and 
overlooks its azure plain. Here there is a merry 
music of waterfalls and shifting shadows of green 
vines. Live-oaks hung with blossoming parasites, and 
beautifully rounded hills vary the river, while the ocean 
breaks angrily into snowy spray over a few scattered 
rocks. Here the threads of vapor spinning over all the 
sky turn to golden meshes, or films of amethyst as the 
sun sinks. Olive, almond, and orange-trees are petted 
in shy corners here ; but I think they will never be 
profitable for market. It is best honestly to acknowl- 
edge cold winds and heavy fogs. Nothing can be more 
beautiful than the approach by sea. Ten miles away 
from the town and about a mile from the shore a per- 
petual oil-spring rises and floods the ocean surface with 
an iridescent calm. Its odor is distinctly perceptible 
on the west side of the town, and the people fancy it is 
healthful. Under the barren plains and lofty mountains 
all the way to San Francisco a great stream of petroleum 
flows, or a solid bed of asphalt lies. Between the rivers 
Zulia and Calatumbo and the Cordilleras, Mr. Pluma- 
cher of Maracaibo, in Venezuela, has lately reported to 
the State Department fountains of petroleum mixed 
with boiling water, which yield two hundred and forty 
gallons an hour. They are as noisy as steam-engines. 
The end of the world is not very near. Its loving 
Maker and Preserver has supplied it altogether too pro- 
fusely with fuel and light. 

Three hundred feet above the sea stands the old Fran- 
ciscan Mission, the most l)eautiful mission on the coast, 
and the only one preserved to that order. It is built 
of sandstone and painted or whitened like the old i)ul)- 
lic buildings in Washington. The nave is two hundred 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 261 

and forty feet long and forty feet wide, — a proportion 
obserN'ed in all. Two domes with open belfries sur- 
mount towers united by a " curtain," in wliich is tlie 
main door. To the left is a wing of one hundred 
and thirty feet, with a corridor supported on arches 
with pillars running the whole length. Here the 
faithful friars keep a " college " at work. Three thou- 
sand Indians built this mission with its reservoirs, 
basins, fountains, and aqueducts. The water from its 
cisterns still supplies the whole town. In the towers, 
from enormous beams by strips of raw hide, are hung 
the five great bells which strike the hours. A rude 
figure of the virgin and child is niched into the pedi- 
ment above the curtain. In the rear I catch a glimpse 
of a belfry surmounted by a cross like that at San 
Gabriel. This belfry is made of a single thick wall, and 
beneath it is the graveyard with its shattered crosses 
and thousands of nameless graves. There is an old 
fi^arden brimmino: over with fraorant bloom, and over 
the door which leads from the church to the cemetery 
are three human skulls with cross-bones adroitly sunk 
in the plaster. Nineteen buildings were once needed 
as dormitories for the converts ! In 1796, three hun- 
dred and twenty-five Indians were baptized, and the 
Mission owned two thousand head of cattle and eleven 
hundred sheep. A beautiful view of the ocean the 
Gray Friars have, as they dreamily pace up and down 
the cloisters, and the sailor coming up the Bay sees the 
lovely form of church and belfry rising far above the 
town. Inside the building are some very barbarous 
pictures, — a very odd one of the Last Judgment, a 
copy of Orcagna, I think ; and over the tomb of the 
first Bishop of California hang his jack- boots and the 



262 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

green-satin hat faced with gold which pleased his sim- 
ple converts. 

After tliis we drove out from Montecito to see, not 
the largest grape vine in the world, for that was cut 
down and sent with its statistics to the Centennial, but 
the next largest, which is one of its offshoots. A 
hundred years ago, a Spanish lady came through from 
Sonora on horseback. At the last moment her lover 
broke a bough from a vine, with which she miglit brush 
away the flies from her steed. She planted it when 
she dismounted, and at the end of the century it had a 
girth of four feet and six inches. The offshoot, which 
is now almost as large, trailed over a trellis, encloses 
a spacious hall, and last year yielded three tons of 
grapes. 

As we went into town we visited the club and library 
rooms, which give a little New England air to the 
place. We tried in vain to find good abalones, or bar- 
nacles. We went also to Mr. Ford's studio to look at 
some interesting sketches in oil of the canons and 
missions. He has a very excellent gallery ; without 
making any wild pretensions, his pictures are nicely 
painted, and there are a great number of them. I found 
it a very pleasant way to make acquaintance with many 
parts of the coast that I shall not see. Mr. Ford has 
a fine collection of fossils and curios. I coveted in- 
nocently some of his fulgurites and moss agates. 

After dinner, Mr. Knight took me out to Spence's 
gardens, that I might see the great depot for the ex- 
portation of pampas grass. The grass is brought in 
from all the country round, green, and tightly encased 
in the sheath. This is slit by a woman's hand, and 
when it is removed, the stalks are laid on the ground 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 263 

for two or three nights and days, and bleached. If 
they were gathered ripe, they would " shed." Mr. 
Speuce has sent one liundred and fifty thousand stalks 
to London this year; and Mrs. Spence told me she 
could open fifteen hundred stalks in a day. She sat 
under a great fig tree at work. Beside the usual over- 
flow of half tropical flowers, I saw immortelles of 
wonderfully brilliant and varied hues ; and I was in- 
troduced for the first time to the slender spires of the 
Statice HarfordiL They are immortal, and look a little 
like lilies of the valley, — of a lovely violet color, crowded 
on their stem. When I went into ecstasies over a 
great bed of English lavender, now out of bloom, and 
cried out for my linen shelves, Mrs. Spence kindly 
brought me all she had saved for her own drawers, 
and insisted on my bringing it away. I bouglit some 
pampas grass, of which the part of the stem in flower 
measured forty-two inclies ! 

T can give no idea of this garden, spread over a level 
space, where more superb roses were trampled under 
foot than any New England horticulturist ever saw in 
his whole life. I went into the barn wliere they were 
packing the pampas. The feathery wonder climbed in 
bales to the very ridge-pole, and fifteen thousand stems 
were going in one box to New York. 

We drove about the town a good deal, to pick up 
persons to go up to Colonel H.'s ranch to-morrow pn 
a sort of picnic, and so I got a glimpse of many 
pleasant people and their homes. At the Dugdales' I 
found Dr. Lincoln and his wife whom I used to know 
at Jamaica Plain. I had not seen him since we stood 
together by the death-bed of my dear friend James P. 
Walker. 



264 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

Santa Barbara, Sept. 28, 1880.— We started in a light 
and most convenient omnibus for Colonel H.'s ranch. 
The road runs parallel with the shore, and a good part 
of the way between fields of lima beans, which are dried 
and exported from this country in immense quantities. 
Mr. H. told me of a small farmer who bought two hun- 
dred acres of land fDr three thousand dollars, and paid 
for it by the first crop of beans which it produced. 

Although Santa Barbara is not a good place in which 
to raise figs for market, and although it has no crop at 
all this year, yet it so happens that I have eaten my 
very sweetest figs here. They were white and brown 
Smyrna. I think it is the brown Smyrna which should 
be used, if people mean to plant for a distant market. 
It is fleshy and dries well, with a rich flavor. The 
green or white Smyrna fig is a shorter fruit. Mrs. 
Winchester sent me a basketful procured in the neigh- 
borhood, which were so sweet and rich as not to re- 
quire cream, which is the common way of eating them. 
They were cracked deeply, and sugared with their own 
juice. 

On the left of the road as we drove to Glen Annie, 
which is the name of Colonel H.'s place, there is a little 
lake named for Governor Fenton. 

At the little town of Golita, the creeks running in- 
land are salt for many miles, like Charles Eiver, near 
Boston. As we got a little away from Santa Barbara, 
the sea breezes brought the odor of petroleum. 

When we entered Colonel H.'s ranch, where the acres 
are counted by the thousand, we passed between vast 
orchards of olives and almonds. The Santa Barbara 
olives when pickled are small and very black, but they 
make a delicious oil. Mr. Cooper, on the next ranch to 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 265 

Colonel H.'s, devotes his land to olives. The fruit 
has a bitter tang, but I find that tliose who eat it 
long grow very fond of it. A great deal of eloquence 
was wasted upon me to-day, in the attempt to con- 
vince me that I had never tasted the finest of foreign 
almonds or the purest Lucca oil. I am prepared to 
admit that there may be some disappointments and 
some adulterations in food, but I have never yet 
found reason to believe that a person who knows 
what good food is, and has the money to buy it, will 
not be able to do so. 

Mrs. H. has also made a very successful experiment 
in pickling limes. 

We got out of the wagon at Mr. H.'s farmhouse, 
some ten miles from town. On the porch was a bit 
of stone, pierced by the ocean borer. It looked like 
a fossil honeycomb. This led to my hearing strange 
stories of sea urchins and oysters imbedded in rock. 
The germs are floated into the cells of such a comb, 
and there they develop. The sea urchins soon perish, 
but the oyster lives and seems to secrete some acid 
which enlarges his quarters. He has a very thin shell, 
and must be near enough to the external surface to get 
nourishment by thrusting his long foot out. 

We walked a little way to the beautiful spot about 
one thousand feet above the sea, where Colonel H. 
lias terraced the soil, and once meant to erect a large 
house. He was prevented, I think, by some lawsuit 
about his title. The frequent lawsuits about titles 
that I find on this coast are enough to take the 
courage out of the boldest pioneer ; and the same 
may be said of the unlucky squatters in Leadville. 
A mining claim underlies all others. When Colonel 



266 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

H. bought liis ranch, nobody thought of mines or 
oil in this region, and I believe there was no allusion 
to either in his deed. The original owner of his ranch 
is dead, but he has left five or six sons. With some 
of thes3 Colonel H. has come to terms ; the others 
refused to sell out this mining claim, and brought a 
suit against him which would undo the work of 
twenty years if it should be successful. Whether 
successful or not, such a suit prevents any sale, and 
takes the heart out of a ranchman's efforts. It is 
time California put an end to such nonsense, and made 
her titles clean and whole. 

The site I spoke of commands the shore for thirty 
miles, and the view, thougli magnificent, is not just what 
I should wish to be compelled to see from every win- 
dow. I would rather walk to it through my garden. 
The Colonel was an Ohio farmer. In 1853 he brought 
his sheep into Santa Barbara County, having been two 
years in driving them across from Ohio ! He sat down 
on this ridge, was thrilled all through by the ocean 
view, and resolved to be rich enough some day to buy 
it. Ten years ago he completed his purchase. Mr. 
W. went through the nurseries planted just here in 
a vain search for some late apricots or nectarines. 
Santa Barbara is so famous for these fruits tliat I am 
disappointed not to taste them from the tree, but it 
is too late. My friend picked me a few strawberries 
however, which were as sweet as honey, and far more 
delicious. I want to note this, because I have seen 
none from market that I considered eatable. They all 
have a bitter tang, which I suppose they get from the 
alkaline soil These Hollister gardens and plantations 
have given me a new idea of what flowers can be and 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 267 

do. A wall with an arched gateway, covered with the 
crimson bracts of the Bougainvillia spedabilis, was the 
most magnificent mass of color under this warm sun 
that I ever saw. Each crimson bract carried a long 
yellow tube expanding into a corolla ; and oh, how 
wonderful it all was ! No green to be seen anywhere, 
— leaves hidden out of sight. 

On and on, through walnut groves we went till we 
came to the pleasant cottage where Colonel H. actu- 
ally lives. Tlie broad piazza in front of it looks down 
to the sea through an oval clearing a mile long. It 
is planted on its outer border with a double row 
of eucalyptus and Monterey cypresses, which are in- 
tended to keep the cold winds from the w^alnut and 
orange groves. Directly in front of the house was a 
circular bed of gigantic calla lilies, in the very heart of 
which some mighty plumes of pampas waved. This is 
a far lovelier spot to live on than the famous " Eidge." 
We passed the house bowered in roses, and kept on 
through the canon till we came to a spot sheltered 
by large oaks, furnished with prostrate trunks, and 
lying between two high walls of rock. There was 
nothing to distinguish it in appearance from many pla- 
ces that I know in New Enoiand. I was a £?ood deal 
disappointed to find that we were not going on to tlie 
olive ranch. Mr. H.'s overseer is a Mr. Coffin from 
Nantucket, who took a great deal of pains to show 
me the characteristics of the different oaks. Colonel 
H.'s servant brought us a wheelbarrow load of water- 
melons, the crimson frac^ments of which were soon 
glowing in a dozen places. They were not as sweet 
as many that I have eaten from the Boston market. 
In Washington or West Virginia no one would have 



268 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

dreamed of eating them; but that is the paradise of 
melons, — not to say " millions " as the natives do. 
We were furnished also with delicious milk and cream. 
Just as we were coming aw^ay, after a hearty lunch, 
Colonel H. appeared in a black velvet suit, and car- 
ried me away through his lime, almond, and walnut 
groves. There I discovered that a fine fresh almond 
tastes no better than a new chestnut. It is at least 
two months after it is gathered before it matures and 
develops its own special flavor. The same thing is 
true of the chestnut and walnut, but not to the same 
extent. The lime trees are always in bloom, which 
is true in a very limited sense of the lemon, and not 
at all of the orange. Colonel H. presented me wdth a 
single spray of orange blossom which was all he could 
find on hundreds of trees, and which he insisted must 
have bloomed on purpose for me, as its appearance 
w^as most unusual. He loaded several gentlemen wdth 
Persian Cassavas, called here the " spoon melon," which 
he wished me to taste. 

Colonel H. has still about seventy-five thousand 
sheej), only four thousand five hundred of which, how- 
ever, are on this magnificent ranch. Everywhere as we 
entered were live-oak groves covered with slender point- 
ed acorns of vivid green. A funny little woodpecker 
makes holes in the thick bark, and studs the trees 
with thousands of acorns which he sticks into the 
holes. It is supposed that each acorn holds a grub, 
and that Master Woodpecker discreetly waits for it to 
fatten, and puts it in his own pantry where it need not 
fall w4th the autumn leaf. This ranch is too large to 
have the lovely perfectness of the fruit ranches at Los 
Angeles. It has a general air of unfinish. We passed 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 269 

herds of cattle winding between the foot-hills and 
scattered orange groves. Mr. Coffin sa^^s they often 
feed out fifty wagon loads of water-melons to the 
cattle ! If not sweeter than those " fed out " to us, 
the milk would be none the better. There are three 
hundred acres of walnuts, and both sweet and sour 
limes. Upon the lime-trees I found an anomalous 
fruit which was peculiarly delicious, and of which I 
could easily have gathered a bushel. The proper fruit 
is like our pickled lime, — large, with plenty of seeds, 
and quite often a very thick skin. On the ends of the 
branches .were scattered a great many limes no larger 
than a nutmeg, with a rind as thin as the thinnest 
foreign paper, and no seeds at all. I broi^ght away as 
many as I thought I could use in crossing tlie continent, 
for they were ripe and perfectly delicious. I have seen 
a phenomenon something like this on Northern trees 
of a wholly different species ; but I never saw it any- 
where on such a scale. 

I asked Colonel H. what ''chapparal" was, — for 
every two people differ in the definition of it. The 
old Spaniards made rustic chapparal fences, and they 
are very picturesque. The rods are from four to six 
inches in diameter, are set close to each other, per- 
fectly erect, and as uneven as a knotted fringe at the 
top. They frequently grow where they are set. He 
considers the word equivalent to our " brushwood," and 
says it does not indicate any special growth. The 
roots of the thing are large, and sold for firing. " Ma- 
dera" means "matter" or "material," and seems to 
correspond to our English word " deal." 

When we came near the house, Colonel H. drew 
my attention to a superb "cloth of gold" rose which 



270 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

nearly covers it, and whose blossoms are counted by 
thousands, I think. He said it was only eight years 
old! 

Finally we packed ourselves up and came away, — T 
most unwillingly keeping the whole party waiting while 
melons and limes and fresh almonds were packed into 
the carriage for me ; but you will guess that it was 
by no fault of my own. It was a delightful day ; yet 
it does not rival in memory my superb ride from San 
Gabriel to Passadina. However, I cannot do it justice. 
To-morrow Theodore Glancey is to be buried ; and the 
next morning I go with the steamer that takes liis body 
to San Francisco, otherwise I could not have had the 
heart to go exploring to-day, — for with me it was ex- 
ploring and not picnicking. 

When I got home I found that another black- 
bordered hand-bill, announcing the funeral from the 
Presbyterian Church, had been thrust under the 
door. 

Santa Barbara, Sept. 29, 1880. — Early this morning 
Mr. W. drove me into town to purchase supplies for 
my journey. I did not give up the idea of going 
to San Francisco by land and in a carriage, until I 
found that to do it would cost me nearly a hundred 
dollars, if I were not able to ride all night ! I wish 
Miss Bird would lend me a little of her spirit ; for to 
that task I felt wholly unequal. The stage coaches 
travel all night. After the first day's journey I must 
sleep at an inn, and take a carriage of my own, for 
only one stage passes in the twenty-four hours. Then 
I might not find the beds clean, nor the food eatable. 
It is really a great disappointment ; but if it had 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 271 

been spring and the roads fair, I would have done it. 
It is not proliable I should have seen a woman on the 
whole road. As it is, I take the steamer with to- 
morrow's dawn ; and I find that Mr. Stearns, proprietor 
of the "Daily Press," and president of the State Ee- 
publican Committee, takes the body of the brave Glan- 
cey to liis wife on the same steamer. She is with her 
father at Calistoga Springs. 

Does Santa Barbara know what has happened to 
her ? Does she realize that this shot, like the one 
fired at Concord, should be heard all round the world ? 
I cannot tell. What has happened has brought me 
into a very vital connection with the place and people ; 
yet absorbed as everybody is, it has been impossible 
to divert interest to shows and scenery. 

After I had tried in vain to buy some of the dried 
figs, prunes, nectarines, and raisins which ought to be 
for sale in every part of California, we drove again to the 
Mission, where at my request a young French friar from 
Bordeaux showed us all the old silver and the robes. 
Some of the old Spanish embroideries were stiff with 
gold, and the silver vessels were like well known mod- 
ern reproductions, threaded on the repousse with gold. 
Among them, some very old " olios " demand a word. 
These are small vials of wrought silver, with a silver 
spoon attached to the stopper, with which the oil is 
applied in extreme unction in case of contagious dis- 
ease. They are not much used ; but one of them held 
the oil in a beautiful crystal marked with the twelve 
hours. Opposite the tomb of the first bishop was a 
strange old picture of the Last Judgment, which I have 
not described, although I spoke of it on my first visit. 
The open "mouth of hell" is represented by the 



272 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

gaping jaws of a veritable dragon ready to crunch his 
prey. Two holes have been cut into the canvas during 
the last month by mischievous visitors. The friar told 
me, with tears in his eyes, that a valuable crucifix had 
lately been stolen. I felt a sincere pity for this grace- 
ful young Frenchman, whose heart is in his Order, — an 
Order which has lost control of every mission on the 
coast except this. I was sorry that I could not spare 
time to go through the college. I put out my hand, 
and thanked him. " Madame, it is I," he said, for he 
talked English when he found that I hated to talk 
French, — " Madame, it is I who should be grateful for 
unusual sympathy." 

At home, where I went to pack up my odd collections 
of mosses, corallines, algae, and so on, I found an old 
fisherman with a bushel-basket of barnacles, but none 
were of the right sort ; and some ladies who had heard 
of the little girl in Canada who wanted " sand from the 
Pacific," brought sand and shells for her. 

After lunch I walked sadly down to the Presbyterian 
Church, which was soon filled by the indignant and 
loving friends of Theodore Glancey. 

Every clergyman in town took part in the service, 
which, so far as the speaking was concerned, was of 
the first excellence ; but it grieved me to see how little 
those who officiated knew the resources of the Eng- 
lish Bible. The whole service might have been drawn 
from the Old Testament in eloquent and suitable 
words. What was read seemed poor and dull. All 
the speakers were deeply moved. Mr. Weldon, a 
resident invalid, once pastor of the society worship- 
ping in this church, made the address, and fully met 
the fact, that, not so much Clarence Gray, as the whole 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 273 

State of California, is responsible for Glancey's death ; 
and so, if a jury will agree to convict the wretch, not 
merely tlie town but the whole State will be saved. 
At present, assassination appears a pleasant pastime.-^ 
The certain punishment of crime is one of the greatest 
safeguards of society. 

When the coffin, covered with flowers, was carried 
to the hearse, the whole congregation reverently fol- 
lowed. It was then apparent that, beside the audience 
which filled the churcli, at least five hundred persons 
had been silently crowding all the approaches. China- 
men, hoodlums, Mexicans, Spaniards, and all the riff- 
raff lined the sidewalks in their best clothes. They 
looked sober enough as we passed between them. Every 
place of business was closed ; every carriage in town 
seemed to follow the hearse. The procession was more 
than a mile lonf?. When I first came out of the church 

CD 

I was glad to walk slowly through the strange crowd, 
till the carriage overtook me. The Long Wharf, which 
juts out to meet the steamers, is half a mile long. It 
was pathetic to watch the slow march of the mourning 
people, as they followed the body to the warehouse, 
where, properly guarded, it w^ill wait until morning. 
Mr. Winchester drove out upon the beach, where we 
kept sorrowful silence till the living tide turned. 

Never since that morning after the assassination of 
Abraham Lincoln, when I found myself the only wo- 
man on State Street, without knowing how T got there, 
and without anybody caring whether I was tliere or not, 
have I seen a whole population swayed by one emotion, 
as here in Santa Barbara to-day. God grant it may be 
to some lasting good ! 

^ See the acquittal by disagreement of both Gray and Kalloch, 
March, 1881. 18 



274 MY FIRST HOLIDAY, 

As we drove back into town, I saw a fine old adobe 
house. The smooth, hard walls, full three feet thick, 
provide deep window-seats and doorways. The windows 
are large, and the roof tiled with the usual "bits of 
split cinnamon." A wide porch covered with passion 
flowers, cloth-of-gold roses, and jessamine runs across 
the front of the house. One passion vine tills, I am 
told, a space two hundred feet long by fifteen wide, — 
a solid wall of green, starred with purple ! The house 
nestles at the foot of a cliff seamed with ravines, a 
wagon road wound along the ascent, and near on dizzy 
heights countless sheep were feeding. In the square 
yard before the house four century plants were in bloom. 
The leaves were five feet long. They shaded a plat 
twelve feet in diameter. From the centre rose a flower- 
stalk thirty-two feet high, of the usual bluish -green 
color. Around this column the flower-stalks spring out 
spirally about ten inches apart. Each is tipped with 
bluish -green bracts and obscure white flowers. 

On each side of these inniiense plants rose huge da- 
turas, dropping white and purple bells ten inches long 
by five across; and a great columnar cactus, about twelve 
feet high, realized the description of Joaquin Miller : 

' ' At his side a cactus green 
Upheld its lances long and keen, • 
Flat-palmed and fierce with lifted spears ; 
One bloom of crimson crowned its head, 
A drop of blood so bright, so red, 
Yet redolent as roses' tears." 

I went back to the hotel to dine this last night with 
the kind friends who have done so much for me. Col- 
onel H. recognized me, and brought me a parcel con- 
taining beautiful mosses and arrowy acorns from the live- 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 275 

oak sent by Mr. C. He introduced me to Mrs. H., who 
did not appear yesterday, — chiefly, I suppose, because 
she heard I was a preacher; and being one, she fancied 
I could not be a lady ! 

I have now seen Santa Barbara, the " loveliest spot 
upon the coast ! " This is said to be a wholly excep- 
tional season, but I must write of what I find. 

There are no marked changes of season, so far as I can 
discover, on any part of the coast. There is only the 
rainy season and the dry; but it seems to me that each 
day holds all the four seasons. The night grows 
steadily cool from dusk to dawn. You may begin 
with one blanket and add to it till you have three, 
.and your eider-down quilt ! Two blankets are all 
I need in a Washington winter. At dawn here the 
thermometer is 42° or less. At noon it is 89°. It 
only " stays warm '^ for less than three hours, and in 
driving very heavy wraps are needed. Fan-palms, or- 
anges, almonds, olives, apricots, pomegranates, peaches, 
figs, and grapes, as well as apples and pears, grow here ; 
but the former would never be profitable crops within 
ten miles of town. To raise the semi-tropical fruits 
people must plant away from the sea. 

The pepper trees are lovely beyond describing ; gera= 
niums and heliotropes grow to the height of sixteen 
feet. There are thirty varieties of acacia, It is said one 
may have open windows all the year round. I have 
never yet seen any one sitting by an open window, and 
fog is manifest morning and evening. 

No one can exaggerate the beauty of the Coast Range, 
and any one who knows about mountain scenery will 
understand me when I say that at sunset the peaks turn 
to amethyst, amber, and ruby. They look translucent, 



276 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

not merely purple, yellow, and red. Thirty miles inland 
is the Ojai valley, studded with alder, sycamore, and 
cotton-wood, and covered with magnificent groves of oak. 
It is one thousand feet above the sea, with pleasant cot- 
tages gleaming through the trees. This is a favorite re- 
sort for people with bronchitis. 

Santa Barbara to San Francisco hy sea, Sejyt. 30, 1880. 
I lay down but did not undress last night, the arrival of 
tlie steamer was such an uncertain thiog. I heard the 
Mission bell strike every hour. At five o'clock, while it 
still was very dusky, the hack took myself. Dr. Dun- 
ning, and Mr. and Mrs. Stearns down to the wharf. 
The sun rose into a sky flecked with rose-color. The. 
fog lay low, wreathed about the mountain tops, which 
glowed like gems. The harbor is most lovely ; and very 
beautiful were the heights of the mesa as we floated un- 
der them. The most verdant crops are in tlie bean fields, 
and perhaps they are the most profitable. I sat a long 
while on deck watching the fog and the ])ranks of the 
gulls. At least a hundred of the latter were playing 
round the ship, picking up a lunch and balancing them- 
selves on the waves. 

How strange it is they should never be sea-sick ! 
They seemed to rendezvous and dance cotillons in the 
air. They fly backward as a man would chasser. 

I do not like this clumsy ocean. It has no salt air, 
no fine fish, no lively motion. We reached Point Con- 
ception, and the wind grew cold. 

Then came a low line of beach and some scarp moun- 
tains. The coast is very monotonous. At Point Har- 
ford, the port of San Luis d'Obispo, we found a mere 
wharf at the foot of most abrupt rocks. From this 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 277 

wharf a narrow-gauge road runs sixteen miles into the 
hills, passing through several tunnels. We had not 
time to go up to the town, and I enjoyed walking back 
and forth on the wharf with Mr. Stearns. He thinks 
as I do of the importance of Glancey's death to the 
whole State, and has a wistful feeling about it, because 
Gray really intended to shoot Stearns ; and, coward-like, 
only turned away from him when he found that he went 
armed. As the proprietor of the paper. Gray insisted 
that Stearns was responsible. I saw at Dr. Dimmick's 
the other day some beautiful Japanese anemones four 
feet high. That comes up now because we discussed 
the climate, and because Dr. Dimmick is as thoroughly 
crippled by rheumatism as if he had lived all his life in 
New Enoland. 

o 

On hoard the Orizaba, Oct. 1, 1880. — I had an oppres- 
sive headache, and could not sit up much. When I 
came on board I had a stateroom to myself; but the 
agent, who I am sorry to say is a woman, sent two other 
persons into it. The purser swore there was no other 
room, but the fatter of the two women made sure she 
could never get into the upper berth. She showed more 
of the " wisdom of the children of this world " than I 
ever possessed. She went to the purser. " Have you a 
step-ladder on board ? " said she. " JSTo, indeed," said 
the astonislied man. " Then have you two stout sailors 
to lift me into my berth ? " Another stateroom was im- 
mediately found ! The steamer is very full, — the food 
is excellent and plentiful. Two tables are set for every 
meal. Nowhere in California have I been so comfort- 
able as on these boats. The "Orizaba" is not as large or 
as fresh as the " Ancon," but she rolls less and is well 



278 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

managed in every respect. My first thought morning 
and evening is of the silent body on board, a mute pro- 
test against the violence of the land borne on a halcyon 
sea. 

This morning the mountains on shore are three deep. 
Bright sunshine lies at their feet, although we sail under 
a cloud. Just after passing Point Sur we came upon a 
mountain apart from the shore, rising like a pyramid 
from the sea. I could not find that it had any name. 
Across the Bay of Monterey there was a heavy swell, 
and from behind black clouds the sunshine streamed 
over distant hills and pastures. Santa Cruz could be 
guessed at ; how absurd it seemed to be obliged to pass 
on to San Francisco before I could reach it ! Whoever 
wishes to make Santa Barbara a desirable residence, or 
to increase the value of its real estate, must put it in 
communication with the rest of the world. A town 
which one can only approach or leave once a week, and 
then by nothing but the slowest of comfortable steam- 
ers, will never attract a very spirited class of citizens. 

The approach to the Golden Gate was beautiful, and 
we sailed out of a golden sea in lovely sunset light, into 
the harbor of San Francisco covered with black fog. So 
little did anybody expect me, that not a soul came to the 
door when the carriage drove up 1 

San Francisco, California, Oct. 2, 1880. — I found 
thirty letters awaiting my arrival, among them one 
which would have enabled me to go to the Yosemite if 
it had only been written according to promise. 

At nisfht we all went to the Carnival. It was the 

o 

last night, and although painful anxieties connected 
with the health of those dearest to me would have 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 279 

kept me at home, it was something, everybody said, not 
to be missed. 

Everybody was right for once. In the first place 
there was a procession across the stage of the great hall, 
where the Mechanics' Fair was held, consisting of all 
the groups clad, I may truly say, in gold and silver and 
precious stones. It marched to stirring music. Cer- 
tainly there must have been from eight hundred 
to a thousand persons in this procession, all superbly 
dressed for their various parts ! In Caliibrnian vernac- 
ular_ there were two thousand. The amount of money 
spent on these costumes must have been enormous. 
They were all perfectly modest and in excellent taste. 
I saw only one absurd group, and that was the Egyp- 
tian. Nothing could have been worse. The ahair 
opened by an exhibition of the Olympic Club. The 
costume or " tights " of this club is not flesh-color but 
white, which gives a very statuesque effect to their per- 
formances. The whole magnificent procession seated in 
an amphitheatre at the rear of the stage, acted as spec- 
tators to their pleasant feats. It was easy to imagine 
one's self in an old Greek theatre waiting for a gladiator- 
ial combat. It was truly a superb sight, which drew 
down thunders of applause wdien the curtain rose. 
Some of the pyramids of legs and arms were painful 
to contemplate ; nor do I think any good comes of 
one man's standing on his head till he is black and 
holding another on the soles of his feet. The club 
had been an important part in the opening procession, 
and it was curious, as it crossed the stage, to see some 
of the performers turning somersaults in the air from 
the shoulders of others. 

The training is perfect. If all these men only knew 



280 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

and obeyed the moral law as they know and obey the 
physical ! 

Only two of the tableaux challenged special admira- 
tion. Guide's " Aurora " was very well got up ; but a 
Mrs. Holmes personated " Venus rising from the sea " in 
the most exquisite manner. Her drapery was snowy and 
perfectly modest, as might be guessed from the fact that 
she walked about the hall in it, leaning on her Imsband's 
arm, after the entertainment was over. Her beauty 
would make her a fit companion for the new Hermes at 
Olympia. The shell in which she rose opened gradually, 
and colored lights were thrown upon it, which while her 
own attitude was changing made a variety of charming 
pictures. 

San Francisco, Oct. 3, 1880. — I went to the North 
Beach, and, perhaps for lack of a guide, found no won- 
derful surprises. My Washington letters are greatly 
dejected on account of the last news from Maine. I 
expected it, but I expect also tliat Maine will go for 
Garfield. How small an appreciation of peace and com- 
fort must those people have, who consent to Govern- 
ment patronage ! 

San Francisco, Oct. 4, 1880. — To-day I visited Mrs. 
S. at Menlo Park. This morning I tried the resources 
of the "White House," which is I suppose the best 
dressmaking and "ready-made" shop on this coast. I 
bought a warm ulster made in Berlin for seven dollars, 
and had it fitted to my figure for one dollar more. 

I got a boy to bring my baggage to the depot, as I ex- 
pect to go on to Santa Cruz as soon as a brief visit to 
Mrs. S. is over. Warned by previous experiences, I 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 281 

brought the morning's paper to the depot, and asked for 
a through ticket to Santa Cruz with a stop-over at Menlo. 
The man positively refused to sell it, and concealed from 
me the fact that I could go on in the way I desired by 
the narrow-gauge road. He- was so rude in answering 
and not answering my questions that I sent my sweet- 
mannered daughter to him, to try if she would be more 
fortunate. He was quite as rude to her, and then we 
took our seats and waited patiently for Cousin Henry 
to join us. 

Menlo Park is the aristocratic suburb of San Fran- 
cisco, where many of her wealthy merchants have built 
houses like those of Brookline near Boston, or of Irvine^- 
ton on the Hudson, only on an infinitely more preten- 
tious scale. 

We ran out tlirough some pretty little suburban 
towns for perhaps three quarters of an hour, — a nearer 
estimate of its distance from San Francisco I cannot 
give, for when I asked, every one said, " I don't know," 
and I cannot find it on map or gazetteer. We stopped 
at Fair Oaks, and the train was in such haste that 
I could not get off safely, and Nettie hardly did so. 
Captain K. came to the rescue, and the train was again 
stopped a hundred yards beyond. A beach wagon with 
two comfortable horses was waiting for us. The town 
consists of large estates in a great " live-oak barren," as 
they say at the West. Each is neatly fenced, and the 
roads are excellent. Each proprietor, with the aid of 
irrigation, keeps a half-acre or so of lawn about his 
house, bright and green ; but the outlying fields through 
which the long avenues wind look like well-shaven 
wheat fields. The live-oak, covered with moss or ivy, 
the eucalyptus, with its bluish leaves and long red rags 



282 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

of fluttering bark, the candelabra pine, and the Mon- 
terey cypress make these tields verdant. The flower- 
beds are nearer the houses, and from them roses, ver- 
benas, and heliotropes overflow. There is no way to 
describe the abundance of flowers here, nor the wealth 
of color carried by climbing and creeping vines. Mrs. 
S. was born in Alabama, and met us on her porch with 
sweet Southern courtesy, and showed us herself to our 
separate rooms, where we found all the luxury of a 
Parisian bed-chamber. When I came down again I 
went through a long billiard room to a library fitted up 
with carved furniture from Venice, which has grown 
dark through the changes of three hundred years. When 
we went to dinner we returned through the billiard- 
room, crossed the wide hall, and entered a lonsj and 
elegant dining-room, where a table laid with fruits 
and flowers and an abundant dinner, served item by 
item by a white-gloved butler, kept up the graceful for- 
eign illusion. 

I wish that old furniture could talk ; I think it would 
express a dissatisfied astonishment at its change of lo- 
cation. 

Menlo Park, Oct. 5, 1880. — Obliged to stay here some 
twenty hours longer than I intended, on account of the 
discourteous stupidity of the railroad agent. I went 
down to the office this morning and telegraphed to Santa 
Cruz that I would arrive to-morrow. Then we drove 
about among the various plantations, all charming ; but, 
perhaps on account of the limited lawns, much less fin- 
ished than our Brookline gardens. It amazes me to see 
so many people raising thirty different kinds of flowers, 
and not knowing the names of ten. I have already been 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 283 

introduced to six or eight kinds of "sliell-flower," each 
totally distinct from the other. " Better fifty years of 
Europe than a cycle of Cathay," Among others, we 
drove into the grounds of a Mrs. Eathbone. Although 
she was not at hame, we s^ot out of the carriao-e and 
went in to see the liouse, which was built after that 
used by the British Legation at the French Exposi- 
tion. 

The hall and stairway are hung with fine plaided 
India mattings, held in place by delicate black-walnut 
mouldings. Furs covered the floor. The reception- 
room to the left was furnished with rich embroidered 
velvet, and a curtain of crimson velvet embroidered with 
a rose-tree in profuse bearing, which Mrs. Eathbone 
brought from Paris, makes a portiere leading to the 
dining-room. On the dining-room side it is lined with 
a lovely bit of Beauvais tapestry. Above stairs there is a 
beautiful room called the glass-room. It runs the whole 
length of the central building, which projects in front 
of the wings. It has a window at each end, and is 
glazed all across the front in three bays, with deep box- 
seats. These windows are screened half-way up with a 
transparent linen bunting embroidered in faint colors. 
All the accessories are elegant and exquisite. These 
people have immense wealth and no children. Having 
finished and furnished this house, they desire new worhls 
to conquer, and want to sell it. 

Mrs. S. has two hundred and fifty acres here ; two 
hundred are in wheat, and tliese in this year of abun- 
dance will not pay the expenses of cultivation. So she 
stores the crop. Only large ranchmen can make money 
if Nature continues to be so bountiful. In the lovely 
sunset lidit I walked over the estate and across to a 



284 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

little cottage surrounded by fruit-trees, where one of 
Mrs. S.'s daughters lived for a while after her mar- 
riage. 

It was a pleasant little house, but looked dreary be- 
cause it had no lawn. Wheat-straw was spread over 
the dusty soil. 

Menlo Park to Santa Cruz, Oct. 6, 1880.— After break- 
fast my daughter returned to San Francisco and I went 
to drive with Mrs. S. We passed through long avenues 
bordered by immense live-oaks. On Mrs. S.'s own lawn 
I observed fine young sequoias growing. They are 
lovely green cones, full of life and vigor. The " big 
trees" remind me, when I look at their foliaoe, of extinct 
dandies, with a single lock of hair straq'i^lino- over a bald 
pate. We saw Mr. Flood's place from a great distance. 
The avenue seemed half a mile long; and after spending 
one million on his house, he has bought so much land 
that no one can guess how many acres he owns. At the 
dep6t the agent refused to sell me a ticket any farther 
than Pajaro, and could not tell me how many miles it 
was to Santa Cruz, nor when I should arrive there ! 

What was my amazement on entering the train to see 
Mr. Stearns there. I had to look a good many times be- 
fore I could believe it ; but I was very glad, as I could 
hear, tlirou2-h him, somethino- of the funeral at Calistooa. 
He found the wife of Glancey a delicate invalid, over- 
whelmed with grief, and so young as only now to be 
giving promise of what she might hereafter become. It 
must have gone hard with liim to have to tell her the 
whole story, including Gray's fierce pursuit of himself, 
w^hich only ended when Mr. Stearns's friends sent him 
pistols and insisted on his carrying them. Mrs. Stearns 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 285 

went with him, and they delivered to her Theodore's 
last written words. What can any human being say to 
a woman afflicted like this poor young wife? The home 
funeral showed how much Glancey was beloved and 
respected. A great company followed the body to a 
lovely spot in the cemetery, nine miles from the town. 
Mr. Stearns showed me a sweet, tender, little note 
from Mrs. Glancey, addressed to the people of Santa 
Barbara, thanking them for their sympathy. He was 
now on his way to Santa Cruz in search of an editor 
to take Glancey's place. He promises to see me again 
there. He found he should have to stay on at Pajaro, 
and gave me his own ticket to my destination, — so 1 
had no more trouble with railroad agents. 

At first we went through wide wlieat fields, dotted 
with live-oak, and through a very level country. At 
Pajaro we ran through charming valleys and green rav- 
ines, till we came to Sequel, the most English-looking 
cluster of cottages, on a sea-beach. There is still a 
larger group at a distance from the road. Still skirting 
at the slowest possible rate the lovely bay of Monterey, 
we came at last to Santa Cruz ! We have been more 
than two hours making the twenty miles. 

I have come to Santa Cruz to see the woman whom 
Brook Farm remembers as Georgiana B. Did any one 
ever see her magnificent eyes, flashing with indignation 
or glowing with smothered feeling, and find it possible 
to forget her ? For many years she has been Mrs. K. of 
Santa Cruz. She is one of those brave, strong women, 
with whom one may differ at many points and yet hold 
a sweet, firm relation to her until deatli. In her half- 
French, half-English veins she carries the blood of the 
brave, eccentric Princes of Conde, mixed with a more 



286 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

cultured and quiet stream flowing from the English 
gentry. She planned all my Southern tour for me, and 
planned it well. 

Mrs. K.'s servant was at the depot, expecting his mis- 
tress as well as myself She had been suddenly called 
to the Jesuit College of Santa Clara, at San Jose, where 
her youngest son is at school. John found no one but 
myself, and speedily drove me to the house, where a 
charming young Chinaman let me in, and I found no 
mortal beside. I sat down by a cosey wood fire to read ; 
my host soon came in, bright and genial, and excused his 
wdfe's absence. If California were not full of romance, 
the romance of Eichard K.'s life would probably have 
been written years ago. He came to New York from 
Staffordshire, and shipped on a whaler in 1843, going 
round the Cape and bringing up in the Sandwich 
Islands, from whence he sailed for Vancouver's. 

It is not very easy to guess what this journey w^as like 
nearly forty years ago. While the officers of the vessel 
were merry-making in their own way, Mr. K. and five 
others deserted. They put off in a whale-boat without 
food or water, and when they tried to land were attacked 
by unfriendly savages. After thirty-six hours spent with- 
out water they landed, but only delayed long enough to 
fill their keg, as unfriendly foot-marks surrounded the 
spring. A terrible storm swamped the boat, and three 
of the men were drowned. The others, thrown upon a 
sand-spit, ate the bodies of a sea-gull and a porpoise that 
had been killed by the storm. Their boat was snagged 
on the other side of this spit, and putting off to the main- 
land they found blackberries, which quenched hunger and 
thirst. The first Indian whom they met stole from them 
the few articles which had been intended for barter. 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 287 

rrom a friendly village they learned that the jargon 
which described an American was "Boston Tillicuni." 
The Indians at this point took the boat, provided the 
three men with food, and then set them to work to build 
their chief a " Boston house." In two weeks they had 
built a cedar house, twenty by thirty feet, and were then 
kindly guided across the country to Chenook and Astoi'ia. 
This was in 1845, and three months after one of the men 
went back and exchanged a good rifle for the boat tliey 
had left behind. He took it overland to Columbia, the 
Indians helping to make the portages. 

This whale-boat served as a pilot-boat on tlie Col- 
umbia for many years. 

Mr. K. went to w^ork at once in a tannery, having 
stumbled on some curriers' tools, and soon had enougli 
to do. The next spring, some capitalists agreed to start 
him in a tannery above the falls ; but just then a dis- 
pute began about ,the north-western boundary. The 
capitalists wished to withdraw, and offered him a fine 
horse and an outfit for California. Mr. K. accepted 
the offer, and started with a large party of Canadians 
and half-breeds, who soon broke up into separate com- 
panies. Being warned on the way of recent attacks 
of the Rouge Eiver Indians, they travelled safely till 
they got news of the Mexican war, in the Sacramen- 
to Valley. At Sutter's Fort, K. was prostrated by 
chills and fevers ; and an old mountaineer giving liim 
sixty grains of calomel at a dose, he nearly lost his 
life. He was carried on an ox-cart to the river, and 
there taken on board the " launch " about to carry 
wheat for the Russian Government to Yerba Buena. 
He was kept alive by a little tea, till he found a United 
States sloop at the foot of Montgomery Street, in what 



288 MY FIRST HOLIDAY, 

is now San Francisco, and was kindly cared for. When 
he was convalescent, an order for rations at tlie Son- 
ama barracks saved him all further trouble, until he 
regained his strength. After he had fulfilled promises 
to those who had protected him, Mr. K. bought a 
small valley in sight of North Beach, and set up a 
tannery of his own. Here he worked up a few hides 
and deer skins, — peeling his " bark " from live-oaks 
standing near the " Presidio." To crush the bark, he 
took stones from a grist-mill on Clay Street, and his 
tools were made by a blacksmith ! 

Judge Blackburn, of Santa Cruz, coaxed him away 
from this primitive work to dress liides for him in 
Scott's Valley, in the winter of 1847-8. Then and 
there the gold fever broke out. Mr. K. went to 
the mines; made three thousand dollars in three 
weeks ; made a great deal more in trade ; followed 
Fremont and Dr. Corey to Merced ; made about thirty- 
six thousand dollars in a few months, and lost it in as 
many weeks. 

By this time he had learned that nothing was so 
steadily profitable as well paid labor. He opened his 
yard in Santa Cruz in 1850, and in 1855 enlarged his 
firm, and with fine water-power proceeded to make 
the leather which is now well known on the Atlantic 
coast by his stamp. 

An ardent advocate of good schools, religious free- 
dom, and " black Eepublicanism," when this last meant 
something forcible, he justified his English birth by a 
flower-garden as lovely as the glades of Devon could 
show, — skilfully concealing the barren soil by borders 
of vivid green. 

After she left Brook Farm, Miss B. devoted her- 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 289 

self to the prisoners at Sing Sing ; taught colored 
people in Missouri at a time when to teach might 
mean to die ; and finally took charge of a colored 
school in West Chester, Pa. I think the pleasantest 
thinc^s I ever heard of Maroaret Fuller were the ac- 
counts Mrs. K. has given me of Margaret's kindness 
to her, — steadily continued, with real assistance no- 
bly rendered in emergencies. I hope Mrs. K. will li\e 
to write out her own " reminiscences." Not many 
women could write so charming a book ; for she came 
in contact with many remarkable people. 

At about eight o'clock she and her daughter reached 
home, and after half an hour's lively talk I was very 
glad to go to bed. 

• Santa Cruz, Oct. 7, 1880. — Ora drove me down to 
the beach, where we stood awhile, and then rode along 
the sand, looking at the beautiful Bay, to which the 
encircling mountains add the charm of the Eiviera. 
Coming back I saw on the sand, just above the beach 
where it was a little loose, beds of what look like a 
parti-colored pink verbena, and we got out to pick the 
flowers. They Avere exquisitely fragrant ; the breath 
of lilacs is in them. The people call them the " beach 
verbena," but the true name I could not hear. We 
drove to Branci-Forte, and from the heights of Ocean 
Avenue, which runs along the spur where the river 
enters the Bay, we got a wholly different glimpse of 
sea and land. 

Fifty years after Columbus discovered America, Ca- 
brillo sailed North, exploring this coast. When he 
reached Santa Cruz, he fell into ecstasies because here 
for the first time he found mountains covered with 

19 



290 MY FIKST HOLIDAY. 

trees ! He called the Cape after his viceroy, Men- 
docino, and by that name it is still known. 

In 1578 Sir Francis Drake came, and him, too, the 
forests astounded. In 1602 Viscayno began to talk 
about " rose-trees and arable lands." 

All this was before the Mayflower came into Plym- 
outh Bay ; and during this time the Jesuits worked 
hard further to the south, and dotted the coast with 
pretty Missions built by native hands. Of the fanati- 
cal Society of Jesus, it w^as always the most disinter- 
ested and genuine part that went into exile to do the 
work of pioneers. 

When the Jesuits were banished in 1767, the Fran- 
ciscans came in a more adventurous mood ; and so, in 
1769, cattle and houses were sent as far as San Diego 
by land, while provisions, tools, and officers came by 
sea. The priests did not intend to invite emigration, — 
only to educate the natives themselves. They meant 
to go on to Monterey ; but they went thither by land, 
and the description of Viscayno had been written at 
sea, — so they went on and on till they stumbled upon 
Santa Cruz. " It was a pleasure," writes Father Cresse 
when they had crossed the San Lorenzo, " to see the 
herbs and rose-bushes of Castile ! " Ptedwood and syca- 
more were cut down to permit the cattle to pass. 

All the existing^ Missions sent contributions to the 
new town at Santa Cruz, when the cross was erected 
here in 1791. They built a church one hundred and 
thirteen feet long, thirty wide, and twenty-six high. 
The adobe walls were five feet thick, and the Indians 
burned tiles for the floor. 

At this time Captain Cook was travelling through 
the Southern Seas, and John Ledyard of Connecticut 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 291 

was 'with him. The Spanish Government wrote to 
the people at Yerba Buena, and told them not to let 
Ledyard land ; but however he did it, he managed 
to learn so much that when he went to see Jefferson 
in Paris, and told him about California, he excited 
an interest in the country which Jefferson roused 
himself to transfer to Washington, and which has 
been steadily growing ever since. The Indians were 
even then almost as delicate as the Hindus, whom 
a man may kill by a sharp slap on the chest. 
Their work was like the work of other pioneers, 
yet they died at the rate of fifty-four to three 
hundred, and eighty-eight in a single year. It is 
said this Mission had once a great treasure, beside 
its three thousand head of cattle and its countless 
sheep. We hear of golden chalices, and of a priest's 
vestment worth twelve hundred dollars. Grain was 
ground by liand in a mortar. There were no vegetables. 
The beams of the old Mission Church were hewn and 
sawed by hand. In 1825 five hundred people from 
the United States were on the California coast, and two 
hundred of them at Santa Cruz. 

In 1836, Graham of Kentucky assisted one Alva- 
rado to organize an insurrection against the Spanish 
Governor. The Governor fled; but the Mexican Gov- 
ernment proceeded to recognize the insurgents ! This 
had not been expected, and in 1840 the frightened 
conspirators rose against Graham. There came then a 
dreadful time of confusion, which led to claims against 
Mexico, — the Mexican Indemnity, as you have heard it 
called ; and of this, a few years after, Graham received 
thirty-six thousand dollars ! It was ordy three years 
later that Mr. K. came and worked in a small tan- 



292 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

yard in Scott's Valley, with Paul Sweet. He had eight 
oval vats made of logs. The bark was ground by a 
large w^ooden wheel at the rate of half a cord a day ; 
and five hundred skins were dressed in this way in a 
year ! Santa Cruz makes me think a little of the ocean 
drive at Newport. It has not the Neapolitan charm of 
Santa Barbara, but looks out to sea in the boldest way. 

Santa Cruz, Oct. 8, 1880. — Last evening we went to 
hear Clara Foltz, a young lawyer and wife in San Fran- 
cisco, who has excited a great deal of sympathy on 
account of her vigorous efforts to support herself and 
four children, under such circumstances as most try the 
souls of women. She was to make a campaign address 
for the Eepublican committee. It was said to be a cap- 
ital audience that gathered to hear her, yet it only half 
filled the small Opera House, and the hoodlums in the 
gallery kept up a constant cat-calling. She is a bright 
and rather pretty blonde, and her address would have 
been a very fair one for any provincial orator of her 
age ; but I demand more than this of any woman who 
comes before people. I did not like the popular hits 
which brought down the house ; and her voice, which 
would have filled the auditorium in her usual parlor 
tone, she lifted into an unpleasant screech. 

She is still quite young, and capable of far better 
things. If she had started on a high moral ground, I 
am sure her audience w^ould have risen to the occasion. 
She came in to see me after her address, and I found 
her very pleasant in private. Something led to our 
talking of the low order of morals prevailing in the 
State, and the possible influence of the women who are 
getting into public life. I spoke of a woman in a cer- 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 293 

tain town of whom I thought I had reason to complain, 
and was told that she only kept her place because she 
was the mistress of one of the men she served ! A 
great many men in Southern California employed in 
female high schools, if I may believe what I am told, 
have used their position to corrupt the habits of their 
pupils ! Why not employ women ? 

I spoke to Mr. Stearns at the meeting last night. 
He has found a man brave enough to take Theodore 
Glancey's position, and goes back to Santa Barbara 
to-morrow. 

Santa Cruz, California, Oct. 8, 1880. — This morning 
Mrs. K. and I drove along the cliffs for several miles. 
The mountains meet the sea with a charm not to be 
described. We talked a good deal of the condition of 
education in the town. There is some disagreeable 
scandal connected with the school committee, and there 
is the usual talk about the abuse of pupils by male 
teachers all through the State. A very simple way to 
remedy this evil is to employ women to teach girls in 
tlie high schools. If they are not to be found here, 
there are many such women in New England as Miss 
Cleveland and Miss Austin ; and there are those with 
failing health, to whom the mere change would be com- 
plete restoration. Beautiful is the suushine, beautiful 
the rippling streams which dart down to the sea, beau- 
tiful the green coverts filled by nurseries and orchards 
of all the semi-tropical fruits. I cannot think these 
last will prosper, — the climate is too cold. 

The Pajaro Valley has a soil said to be inexhaustible, 
after a cultivation of twenty-five 3^ears. The most 
beautiful thing I have seen in the country is Mr. 



294 MY FIKST HOLIDAY. 

K.'s garden, which does not give a sign of the arid 
soil, which sj)oils so many others. Where there can be 
no lawn the paths and beds have a green border, which 
gives it the look of Devonshire. The town has a line 
bathiDg-beach of clean white sand. The wild-flowers 
show by their species a cooler climate than any I have 
visited. I see buttercups, clematis, anemones, barberries, 
lupins, clover, primroses, convolvuli, and azaleas, with an 
abundance of ferns. These, either the same species or 
species closely allied, creep up to Boston Neck, Cam- 
bridge Bridge, and the Brookline Meadows, — to say 
nothing of Middlesex Fells. 

There is a mountain near, of wdiat the New Yorkers 
call stink-stone, — that is sand or limestone saturated 
with petroleum. There was at one time a factory for 
extracting the oil. About six miles away, on the Kail- 
road just built, lies a big- tree grove, where General 
Fremont once had his camp. There are half-a-dozen 
fine trees, and one three hundred feet high and twenty 
in diameter. A few years ago there was a great excite- 
ment over columns, capitals, and other architectural 
wonders found on a Mr. Locke's ranch. Some of these 
wonderful formations are now bedded in Mr. K.'s 
garden. There is little to astonish us in the fact 
that they were mistaken for pre-historic ruins. The 
most prominent industry in Santa Cruz is that of the 
tan-yard. Lumber, lime, and powder are sent from this 
county to the markets of the East. 

The powder-works must sell at a high profit. They 
are situated in a most lovely valley, where it is impossi- 
ble to dream of slaughter ; and, although every now and 
then they most foolishly blow themselves up, the Cali- 
fornia Powder Works are said to be on a paying basis ! 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 295 

Santa Cruz has, the beginning of a library, to which 
the ladies have added a free readin^r-room. There is 

o 

also, thank God ! the beginning of a temperance move- 
ment. I say this without believing in the least in 
pledges, total abstinence, and the like, except as the 
necessary but inefficient means of beginning a good 
work, — a means imposed by ignorance an 1 a quick 
conscience. 

Everywhere throughout this beautiful world, alco- 
hol is largely provided by natural processes. The juice 
of some kinds of palms, of all kinds of citrons, of 
the peach and many berries, turns to alcohol when 
these fruits ripen, or whenever they are allowed to 
stand when ripe. The Peruvian finds mate in the 
stems of his cactus ; the Esquimaux, iu piles of beach 
berries. There are many possible circumstances in 
which life cannot be preserved, so far as we know, 
except by the use of alcohoL It seems to me, there- 
fore, that it forms part of the Divine plan, and that 
the only effectual way to secure temperance is to teach 
self-control instead of legislating abstinence. No re- 
straint which comes from without is worth a straw 
except in a few painful cases. The restraint which is 
to save us comes from a manly exercise of the will ; 
and we must beojin at the be^innino-. 

The stomach is to a great extent exactly what we 
make it. Little babies must be fed, not crammed. 
Over-eating must be branded as shameful ; and, above 
all, the women of the whole world must cease prat- 
ing about the burden of housekeeping, the trouble 
of daily cooking, and the impossibility of baking bread 
and pies for their families. I know no more frequent 
cause of drunkenness than the bad cooking of ignor- 



296 MY FIRST HOLIDAY, 



ant women. Hunger ceases to be hunger when the 
stomach is abused, and becomes a diseased craving for 
support. Drunkenness abounds in all hard-worked 
communities, chiefly because these communities are 
likewise imperfectly fed. I know that I saved one 
high-born drunkard in Canada simply by giving him 
good coffee and hot oysters whenever he came for them, 
even if it were in the middle of the night. If he had 
gone to any public eating -room he would have gone 
into temptation. 

One other thing is needed, — that the punishment for 
drinking should be made disgraceful. Whenever a man 
is found drunk I think he should be set in the stocks, 
or flogged. He is no longer a man ; he has made him- 
self a brute, and should not be comfortably fed and lodged 
at the public expense. Still further, men should be com- 
pelled to pay the full penalty of any crime committed in 
drunkenness. Murder is murder, and robbery robbery, 
and arson arson, — whether the guilty creature be drunk 
or not. 

In these ^vays the law can help us, and in no other. 
I feel at liberty to say these things, because I have 
never offered alcoholic liquor as a beverage, and be- 
cause I have never refrained from using it when dis- 
ease seemed to point to it as a natural remedy. 

I cannot say much about the Unitarian church in 
Santa Cruz. Great sacrifices have been made for it, but 
its frame of gold seems to rest on feet of clay. I do not 
believe in building churches in any hope that Spiritual- 
ists, Universalists, Christians, and Unitarians may settle 
into a homogeneous whole. If I were a young preacher 
I would take my life in my hand. I would walk all 
the way to some spirit-starved place East or West, if I 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 297 

could not afford to ride. When I got there, if I had not 
money to hire a hall, I would preach on the hill-side or 
in the open square. The doctrine of God's love and 
man's good-will appeals to the common and the culti- 
vated alike, and I believe whoever yields these a firm 
faith, and takes the risk, will find liis reward. 

In the afternoon we drove to Soquel, the loveliest 
little nook on the coast. A few cottages, built as a sum- 
mer resort for the people of San Jose, are clustered un- 
der the great oak-trees. We drove further on, to the 
beach, which I passed as I came into Santa Cruz, and 
which has a little settlement of thirty or forty houses 
close on the sea, and is called Camp Capitola. On the 
sparkling sand, under the glowing sun, it seemed to 
me more like some little watering-place on the Brit- 
ish channel than any of our pretentious American re- 
sorts. 

We came home in a most remarkable sunset. The 
sun went down in a firmament full of lightly flecked 
clouds. It sank at last behind a band of dark gray cloud 
five or six times its own width, which gave no evidence 
of unequal character ; yet unequal it must have been, for 
the golden orb was crossed by three black bands, and 
glowed with refulgence between. 

Santa Cruz, Oct. 9, 1880. — This morning we went 
down town and bought " water drops." These are 
transparent pebbles of silica and quartz, colored by 
various minerals, and about the size of a laroe scarlet 
pea. They are all nearly of the same size, and are 
gathered with great pains on a pretty beach a few miles 
away. I bought some limpets and sea-sand for Agnes 
Strickland's little o'rand niece, and some brilliant coral- 



298 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

lines, — red, green, gray, and purple. The latter, I am 
sorry to say, fell to pieces before we got home. 

I have spent a good part of the day in reading Mrs. 
K.'s autobiography, one of the most fascinating memoirs 
that ever came to my hand. I could give. you one or 
two charming stories out of it, if I did not most sin- 
cerely desire that she should finish and print it herself. 
After lunch, Ora and I went to Moore's beach, — partly 
to pick up pebbles, and partly to see three arches eaten 
out of the cliff by the restless, overbearing waves, and 
called '•' natural bridges " here, although they are bridges 
that lead nowhere. Ora thought we had better go to 
the lighthouse and see whether Miss Hecox might not 
have some barnacles for sale. This is one of the pleas- 
antest visits I have made in California. We danced 
away over the beautiful road and in the clear air. At 
the gate we fastened our horses, and when we went into 
the house were shown into a sort of private kitchen. 

There Miss Hecox came to meet us. She is the 
daughter of the keeper, a woman about twenty-eight 
years old. She is supposed to have had a fall in in- 
fancy, which occasioned, first, convulsions ; and then a 
paralysis of one side. Many a child would have been 
soured by her fate, but Laura soon began to take pleas- 
ure in the study of shells, until she is quite an au- 
thority on this coast, and very useful to many more 
famous collectors by exchanging or forwarding what 
they want. Through the kindness of such persons she 
has accumulated a pretty museum, which her father has 
been proud to set up. It is the only trace of luxury in 
the simple house. She had just received the seed-vessel 
of the Egyptian lotus, labelled "betel-nut" by some odd 
mistake, and was so grateful to have the label corrected 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 290 

that she gave me some pretty shells. She has a sweet, 
frank, intelligent face, which makes one forget her mis- 
fortune ; and the recollection of lier useful and busy life, 
several miles from any town, will always rest in my 
mind as a pleasant contrast to the lives of many women 
whom I know, whom nothing short of London or Paris 
can furnish with occupation. 

Santa Cruz, Oct. 10. — It is a sorrowful Sunday to 
me. If I had not been full of employment it would 
have been unendurable. The " treasure " that we hold 
in precious little earthen vessels in Buffalo w^e have 
nearly lost, and the letter which should have come to 
reassure me is missing. 

Directly after breakfast ]\Ir. K. started for a vineyard 
in the Zeyante valley, which he wished me to see, and 
to wdiich lie had no time to carry me except to-day. As 
the Unitarian church is closed, I had nothing to leave. 

We had a strong, spirited, young horse. The road, 
though pleasant, was neither remarkably interesting nor 
characteristic until we got high into the mountains. We 
passed through some fine woods which w^ould alone have 
repaid me for the drive. Pine, redwood, and chestnut- 
oak, how magnificent they were ! Each was seeking the 
sky, shooting up, up, — without a branch. A good deal 
more impressive, however, are our Eastern groves, where 
the bulk of the trees is realized because the spread of 
the branches is commensurate with it. 

I shall never forget my first view of this vineyard. 
A dozen or twenty hills, all pitched toward each other 
in the sharpest angles, accessible to their tops, but ac- 
cessible with difficulty, make a cup in the mountains, 
lined with the yellow-green verdure of the grape. The 



300 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

vine is not trained here, as at Los Angeles and Passa- 
dina, but s^^rawls along the ground. In the intervening 
hollows, almost out of sight, lofty cedars and red -wood 
rise and shut it all in. The first look like the deodars 
of the Himalas, so grand and dark they rise. There 
were a few huts, barns, and " sample-rooms," but not a 
dog, a horse, or a man in sight. No sign of man's work 
either ! Angels themselves might be tending the vines 
for all one could guess, and yet the lifted eye travelled 
over hundreds of acres. 

In the three ranches nearest to me there were 
more than a thousand acres. Four hundred and sixty 
of them belong to the vineyard I have driven twenty 
miles to see. The first purchaser paid forty thou- 
sand dollars for this spot, and spent twenty thousand 
dollars on it. When he broke down it was offered 
by the local bank, to which it was mortgaged, for twelve 
thousand dollars. Mr. K. wanted it, but could find 
no one to go into the purchase with him. I think it 
cost the present possessor no more than six thousand. 
He is a Frenchman, who made ten thousand gallons of 
red and white Burgundy last year, and will make twenty 
thousand this year. This vineyard is placed like the 
famous vineyards near Oporto, where the best port is 
made. It is very much sheltered, yet ice frequently 
forms at night. 

We wandered up and down, tasting very sour grapes ! 
There was a kind of Catawba grape, wholly without 
seeds, that I thought might make a sort of Sultana 
raisin. None of the Muscats were ripe. We climbed 
the hill until we stood under some superb live-oaks, 
ankle deep in loose soil, and in the midst of under- 
brush composed of chaparral and laurestinus. Chap- 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 301 

arral here is supposed to indicate an evergreen oak, but 
this was in blossom. It bore obscure greenish flowers, 
which had nevertheless a decided effect when seen from 
a distance. Where each of these had gone to seed was 
a pinch of downy wliite fluff. Eoses, escholtzia, a lovely 
pink and white flower growing in clusters at the axils 
of bare stalks, and bright scarlet primroses, darting in 
twos and threes from a bunch of dark leaves, enamelled 
the slopes. Seven miles away a hazy scallop showed 
the crescent of mountains which encloses the Bay. Be- 
yond these was the swelling ocean. * 

" In a clear day," began Mr. K., — but 1 had hardly 
patience to hear. It is what they all say in California, 
and never yet has there been a clear day ! Of course I 
cannot tell w^hat will come after winter rains, but I like 
the summer flower and the autumn grain to get a little 
sunshine. It is impossible that grapes should be al- 
lowed to grow so entirely hidden by leaves, unless they 
need to be sheltered from the chill of night and fog. 
We walked a quarter of a mile to a fig orchard, but the 
" time of figs was not yet ! " All around, apple trees 
w^ere bending under their burdens. Their tawny or 
russet cheeks kissed each other as closely as if they had 
been the berries of a bunch of grapes. I tasted, but 
the fru.it had neither sweetness nor body. 

Edith asked me when I came away to " eat grapes " 
for her. I am afraid I cannot oblige her, unless I find 
some better fruit ! As we draw nearer to the house a 
man and a dog were visible, and we were cordially in- 
vited to share the proprietor's dinner. He is keeping 
bachelor's hall, and of course I did not expect any re- 
finement of cleanliness. Yet I was astonished at what 
I found. The house is a pleasant one. I saw only 



302 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

a parlor, dining-room, and kitchen. There were no 
signs of restricted means, and there were articles of 
all sorts in these three rooms which, properly cared for 
and arranged and well dried, might have made a little 
Paradise ! It seemed as if no woman ever could haVe 
lived there, and yet the host only said his wife was 
"away." Neither sun nor air seemed ever to be let in, 
for not only had the dust been long neglected, but it 
was so damp as to cling in flakes to carpet and furni- 
ture, giving a thoroughly unwholesome impression. 

The dinner consisted of roast beef, potatoes, and baked 
beans, followed by apple-pie. Nothing need have been 
better, had it been cleanly cooked and served on a clean 
cloth. Behind the master's chair stood the cook and 
waiter, — a Chinaman, who was only the dirtier be- 
cause he wore white linen. When told to give me a 
clean plate, he deftly polished it with the tail of his 
blouse ! As I was allowed to help myself, I deposited 
my slender bit of pie safely upon a slice of bread ! I 
never inquire into what goes on out of my sight, but 
what takes place before my eyes is sometimes a little too 
much for me. I was not surprised to find this gentle- 
man drinking freely of his own wines at dinner. Such 
a dinner could hardly have been swallow^ed without 
alcohol in some form. But I must not forget to say 
that he was wholly ignorant of his servant's substitute 
for a napkin, and I would not mention the thing except 
to show that although orderly the Chinese al-e very far 
from clean. We had not a particle of fruit on the 
table ! I made a feint of eating, for the Burgundy was 
too heavy for me to drink. 

We did not get away till we had been carried through 
a series of very dirty wine houses, and invited to taste 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 303 

every kind of wine. It was red and white Pjiirgundy, 
Muscat, and dry Catawba. The dry Catawba is a whole- 
some wine. After we had tasted, I observed that my 
host turned the remnant in my glass back into the cask. 
I am afraid he would not have been much shocked at 
the want of that napkin. Thrifty citizen ! We drove 
away to the Big Trees I wrote about, and oh how lovely 
it all was! Laurel, madrona, or live-oak, stood gar- 
landed with honeysuckle on each side of us ! There 
was a thicket of snowberry, white with clustered fruit. 
There were the two kinds of tar-weed plants bearing 
brilliant yellow blossoms, whose species T cannot even 
guess. Both are black and gummy, looking as if 
smeared with tar, and they give women and sheep a 
great deal of trouble. The tall bushy kind is said to 
indicate a rich soil ; that which clings to the ground, a 
barren hope. 

We drove by the old tannery once kept by Paul 
Sweet. When Mr. K. first came to it, great grizzly 
bears, each weighing from eight hundred to a thousand 
pounds, used to steal into the cattle-yard every night. 
On one occasion one of these creatures caught a calf by 
the nape of the neck, and leaped a tall fence. A revol- 
ver was fired, but the animal dropped the dead calf and 
escaped. The next day they followed the bear with 
hounds, and took him. 

One day Paul met a grizzly bear with cubs, in the 
wood. She caught him by the waistband, plunged into 
a hollow, dug a large hole in the sand, and buried Paul 
out of sight. After a while the tanner w^orked his way 
up to the surface, but Mistress Grizzly was watching. 
She darted forward, and snugly tucked him in with two 
or three strokes of her big paw. This time Paul was 



304 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

more wary. The sand was loose, and after the creature 
had gone off to her cubs, he crawled home entirely un- 
hurt. 

" This is the tale was told to me, 
And he may believe who can." 

It was quite evident that Mr. K. believed it. 

Just here I saw great spikes of purple sage, and a huge 
heath-like plant whose stout spike, or spadix, was cov- 
ered with bright red and yellow blossoms, funnel-shaped. 
The natives call it " red-hot poker ; " and it was re- 
freshing to get even so much of an answer to my in- 
quiries. The road was full of ground-squirrels which 
darted across like lightning, and in the long furze of the 
fields might be mistaken for a covey of quail scuttling 
off. A great many larks, linnets, bluebirds, and yellow- 
birds made merry over our heads. Mr. K. acknowledges 
that there are very few singing birds. The chestnut- 
oak has a larcje eatable acorn. There were maq'nifi- 
cent ferns under the oaks. A little while ago Mr. 
K. sent to Vick for a new decorative plant, and the 
man sent out a fern which grows wild all about the 
K. stables ! The Zeyante is a branch of the San Lo- 
renzo. Koses seemed to be scattered everywhere, — 
red, white, yellow, — so large and so healthy looking, 
and so frao'rant ! 

After a long drive through woods which gradually 
increased in thickness, where gigantic shafts pierced 
the sky, we drove into a well cleared grove and found 
ourselves surrounded by the sequoia. The ground cov- 
ered with the annual deposits of the trees was clean 
and hard, and the trunks rose so high as wholly to shut 
out the rays of the declining sun. The trees looked 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 305 

much smaller than they are, as usual ; but the di- 
ameter of the finest is twenty-eight feet, and its height 
two hundred and ninety-six feet, seventy feet having 
been blown off the top in a tremendous gale. The hol- 
low near the base formed a home for a man and his 
w^ife all one winter. They lived here to make shingles. 
The space is sixteen feet in the clear. They cut two 
windows and a chimney, and all these are now nearly 
filled in with bark. Before the grove was graded as a 
summer resort, a man once rode into this tree on horse- 
back; but the floor is now too hioh for that. 

Outside another tree was a curious knot, which looked 
exactly as if a brown bear were trying to climb into a 
hole. You can see the tail between the legs, the' rounded 
back, the shoulders and haunches. The head appears 
to have been plunged into the trunk of the tree. 

I have never seen a finer tree than the lar^^est. The 

o 

trunk turns spirally, so as to be entirely useless as tim- 
ber, but it is perfectly upright. Tiie cards of visitors 
are tacked on to the trunks of all the sequoias in this 
grove, so as to make it look like an advertising parade. 
On my complaining of this, I was told that a gentleman 
in the neighborhood had had these cards all removed at 
his own cost during the last spring ! The grove includes 
a picnic-ground, a beer-stand, a small hotel, and a tan- 
nery, which was used in 1845. Square tanks were cut 
in the trunks of giant trees. I sliould think each one 
might hold a single hide. The narrow-gauge road to 
San Francisco runs up to the grove, and the prosperity 
of the pretty place was destroyed for this year by an 
accident which occurred when this road first opened. 
Fifteen persons were killed one quiet Sunday. Near by, 
charmingly placed, is the little town of Felton. 

20 



306 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

At the tannery, when the gold mines "broke out" 
in 1845, a saw-mill was in process of erection. Tlie 
mining fever put a stop to it, property changed hands, 
and the trees are preserved for posterity. 

The phrase " broke out " is very significant. Mr. 
K. made a fortune in two years, and in six months 
had not a cent to show for it. I find it a common ex- 
perience. I have yet to see the first mining adventurer 
who is any richer for his efforts ; and the Bonanza Kings 
do not enjoy their money, and do not know what to do 
with their accumulations. 

As we were exhausted with hunger we asked for re- 
freshments, but not a morsel of food nor a drop of beer 
or lemonade could be had. Mr. K. could not find a 
cigar ! It is very well that our friend at the vineyard 
was hospitably inclined. 

We drove sharply down hill, on going out of the 
grove, to the banks of the San Lorenzo, which we forded. 
Pausinsj to let the horse drink in the middle of the 

CD 

stream, T saw what I shall never forget. Not a stir of 
life on the lofty bluffs from which I had lately gazed 
my fill ; not a stir on the broad river, flecked with amber 
lights, as it made its way round a few intrusive boulders. 
The sharply pitched banks were set with serried pines, 
with redwood, and with chesnut-oaks, which seem to 
recover by miracle when the tanners have pulled off 
their bark. These trees rise too erect to arch in the 
stream, which, about one hundred feet in width, lay 
bathed in sunlight. The shadows coquetted on its sur- 
face. In the stillness I could hear a droning fly. 

We drove out through an immense ranch where a 
great deal of timber had been cut. The owner lost the 
whole by his foolish betting at a single horse-race. 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 307 

Here the narrow-gauge railway, tunnelling the hills 
and running in and out the curves like a snake, began 
to attract my attention. It is adventurous, like all nar- 
row-gauges, and was sometimes above and sometimes 
below us. It brings passengers from San Francisco to 
Santa Cruz in three and a half hours, and is the road 
that the broad-gauge agent ought honestly to have told 
me of when I started from Menlo Park. 

Next we came upon the California Powder Company's 
group of buildings, hidden under groves of trees at the 
bottom of a bowl-shaped depression in the hills. I can- 
not describe the charming road which, after curling mid- 
way about the hills, wound through the canon shaded 
by superb trees, watered by the tanners' teams, beset by 
quail and overrun with squirrels, and finally brouglit us 
back to town. Below us, in the hollow, was the railway, 
hidden by thick-clustering tree-tops. Above us, mighty 
forests on the summits shut out the light. We came 
past Mrs. Farnham's old farm, across the old peach and 
fig orchards of tlie Mission, by the new frame-building 
of the Sistej:'S of Charity; and, after a drive of tw^enty- 
five miles or more, were very glad of our dinner. 

Santa Cruz, Oct. 11, 1880. — When I got home last 
night I found very distressing letters from my invalids. 
This morning I was obliged to answer them ; it w^as 
out of my power last night. After I had done so, I 
went out to calm my spirit in Mr. K.'s beautiful garden. 
Here are many flowering shrubs that I never saw be- 
fore. Laurustinus, and daphne with great white blooms 
as large as lilacs, scent the air. Roses, verbenas, the 
true myrtle, every variety of fuchsia, violets, pansies, 
and periwinkle are all in bloom. Then the Norfolk 



308 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

Island pine with great lateral branches, and the Mont- 
erey cypress in solid cones of green, shade the beautiful 
lawn. Near the cypress, and almost identical with it in 
effect, is a cedar, the seed of which was sent from Jeru- 
salem. The botanist discovers differences. I do not 
think either is the cedar of Lebanon. JSTo trimming 
could make a close cone out of the majestic swaying 
deodar. Then there are cacti, huge and prickly; 
century-plants with the mighty columns set with blos- 
soms not yet fruited, and Australian hemp. A fish- 
pond is on each side the arbor ; and in the rear, behind 
a green hedge, are the vegetable garden and the or- 
chard. 

A Spanish woman came to see me, to talk about some 
lace work I am to have done. Another person came to 
get the names of some school-books. 

After lunch we went down into the " street," which, 
except that there are tropical looking flowers and vines 
in the second storey, might be any village street in New 
England ; but it takes a great while to do anything here. 
I could not get photographs of the neighboring scenery. 
I went to see a Spaniai'd who was reported to have 
curios, cut out of onyx, and marine "tear-drops." He 
showed us all sorts of extraordinary things, — picture- 
frames, tables, boxes, and a few beautiful stones. Every- 
body remembers the Mexican onyx shown at the 
Centennial, with its veins of cream-color and tender 
green, with here and there a compact of orange-brown 
clay. It is really a kind of stalagmite, and is wrought 
into very large articles here. 

The courtesy of these Spaniards is delightful; but 
it did not prevent our Seiior from smoking as he sput- 
tered away to me, first in Spanish and then in French. 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 309 

I was ashamed of all the trouble I made him, and had. to 
buy a few pebbles. I was in his house, he retorted, 
and it was at my disposal : I must see everything. I 
think there was garlic everywhere. The odor seemed 
to distil from the onyx ! We went out through the 
kitchen, where it seemed to be lying on the floor and 
in the- sink, and to be stewing over the fire, and then 
into an outer shed to see some of the larger pieces of 
onyx. I bought some note-paper and some drugs, and 
some fine linen for the Spanish needle-work. 

Ora then drove me up to the highest terrace on 
the north of the town, where in the midst of desola- 
tion Judge Logan has built a house. I went to look 
at varieties of needlework, of which Mrs. Logan could 
show me many. I remained entranced by the ocean 
view. Ocean, beach, and town, mountain heights and 
meadow slopes, lay lovely in the radiant sunshine. Why 
is it not Mentone ? The lazy water is far more like 
an inland sea than the enfolding ocean. Almond and 
olive trees keep up the illusion, but I think this bay is 
too cold for the graceful feathery plumes and purple 
clusters of the white-pepper. 

From this charming spot we went to the Mission. 
Li the ruined old adobe building, whose naked tim- 
bers are still worth seeing, they have cleared away 
the accumulations of stable and workshop, and show 
well vitrified tiles, manufactured and put down by the 
Indians under the old floors. Here I looked over 
the old Spanish registers carefully kept and beauti- 
fully written, which tell of the conversions, the mar- 
riages, the births, baptisms, and deaths, and record the 
small gossip concerning cattle and crops. The priest 
in attendance was a young Irishman who could not 



310 MY FIRST HOLIDAY, 

read a word of them. He showed us some fine em- 
broidered vestments which came up here from Peru, 
and which are probably three hundred years old ; and a 
superbly embroidered white satin cloth in gold and sil- 
ver, made to cover the sacred chalice. It was strange 
to see how much fresher all these things were than the 
very finest made during the last thirty years. We saw 
also a very old picture from Peru, which seemed to ]je 
a Spanish copy of a Carlo Dolci. Three thousand In- 
dians lie in the old Jesuit church-yard. 

When this particular Mission was founded in 1791, 
Salazar and Lopez came from Santa Clara to start it. 
They brought thirty cows, five yoke of oxen, fourteen 
bulls, twenty steers, and nine horses ; from San Do- 
lores five other yoke of oxen, and from Mount Carmel 
seven mules. So prosperous were all these Missions 
then ! The nineteenth century has not taken jDossession 
of the Spanish race, only of an isolated minister or pro- 
fessor here and there upon Spanish soil. To penetrate a 
Spanish-Mexican town is to modern civilization much 
like what D'Albertis found in New Guinea, as com- 
pared with Algeria or Barbary. Here they built a 
church one hundred and twelve feet long, twenty-nine 
feet wide, and twenty-six feet high, with walls five feet 
thick ; they set out ten hundred and twenty-two fruit- 
trees and twelve hundred vines ! At the end of twenty- 
three years they had thirty-three hundred head of cattle, 
thirty-five hundred sheep, six hundred horses, twenty- 
five mules, and forty-six hogs. 

The church had once a store of costly decorations, 
which were not wasted on a race so fond of color and 
glitter as the natives of this coast. Beside the brilliant 
chasubles and robes, there was a golden chalice worth 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 311 

six huiidi'ecl dollars, and another worth three hundred 
and twenty dollars. A beautiful melodious old Spanish 
bell now lies broken in the court-yard. 

In 1819 this Mission put up a house for widows and 
children, with two wings. Its possessions reached in- 
land for tliree leasfues, and stretched eleven lea^'ues 
along the shore. 

In the evening we went to the opera-house, which 
seems, like a little village theatre, quite neat and pretty, 
to hear Newton Booth, late Governor of California, 
and Mr. Esty, of San Francisco, discuss the political 
situation. Both spoke in an earnest, noble, and con- 
vincing way, from as high a plane as I have ever heard 
anywhere. Governor Booth's eloquence impressed me 
very much. 

I am struck here with the low estimate put upon pliy- 
sicians. Very few women in California seem to have 
any faith in the purity of men. I do not mean only 
those women who have been born here, but those who 
once knew a different state of things at the East as 
w^ell. It troubles me to hear them talk. I feel a pitiful 
contempt for men who make a habit of talking against 
women. How can I help feeling the same for women 
who make a habit of talking against men ? The two 
sexes make one race, — come clean from tlie hand of 
God. They need, and why should they revile, each 
other ? I hear the women on all sides of me say openly 
that all the -physicians here connive at unchastity in men 
and women ; that any one who undertook to do other- 
wise would be driven out of practice in a week. No one 
believes me when I say that not one of honorable and 
regular standing at the East would dare to do so. They 
" know better," 



312 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

Santa Cncz, Oct. 12, 1880.— After dinner Mrs. K. took 
me to see Dr. Andersen, a good botanist, who instantly 
translated my "scarlet horn" on the hill-side into "Cali- 
fornian primrose," and showed me a large collection of 
Pacific algse beautifully kept. As, however, I had ah^eady 
seen most of these in Santa Barbara, the principal interest 
of his collection centred in delightful specimens from Key 
West, sent by a Mrs. Curtis. Among them the most be- 
witching was a little creature no bigger than the head 
of a large pin, and looking greatly like a microscopic 
mushroom. This was white, brown, or sea-green, ac- 
cording: to its ao-e. His best collectors were women. He 
showed me also fine fossils from the Sierras, and beauti- 
ful specimens of red and black pipe-clay. The clay can 
be cut like putty, when it is first brought in, but grows 
very hard in time. It is odd that this should be true of 
so many stones as well. 

I found in one of Dr. Andersen's books the true name 
of the nelumbrium, or lotus, which I had wanted for 
Laura Hecax. A Miss Lennebacker, a school-teacher 
here, who is distinguished as a scientific collector, came 
in. She promised to send me a collection of algse. 

Mrs. K. was kind enough to drive me to the light- 
house. We saw Mrs. Hecox first, and she said that after 
I went away, and Laura looked at my card, she knew 
that I must be the mother of " Alaska Dall," and was 
vexed that she had not done more to please me. I 
think you children may have been a little impatient 
sometimes of attentions shown you for my sake. Noth- 
ing, however, pleases me more tlian those that are now 
offered me for yours ! Both of you have " turned the 
tables " upon me these many years. Laura was quite 
delighted that I had brought back the label for her, and 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 313 

we parted with regret, after I had written out for her a 
short description of the nelunibrium, and of the areca fur 
wliich it had been mistaken. 

We drove a mile or two further, over the lovely cliff. 
The azure of the sea was not broken by a single white- 
cap. The Carmel mountains might have been cut out 
of moonstone, so lucent did they rise against the pearly 
horizon. The cliffs were precipitous. Lovely little 
islands, snowy-white, rose near the shore, the favorite 
perch for the sea-fowl. Against these the sapphire 
waves playfully tossed, broke, and retreated in rivulets 
of foam. They were not in earnest. The Pacific tide 
was down. Here and there the wind and water had eaten 
out a projecting cliff till it formed a most ?m-natural 
bridge. At Moore's beach we saw the three arches full 
of sunlight, with gulls flying in and out. We dallied 
longer than we had any excuse. Very reluctant am I 
to leave this charming spot, where the kindness of those 
who permitted me to come to them when they were un- 
der the shadow of a great grief has made every moment 
refreshing. Here, first, have I truly made acquaintance 
with the Pacific Ocean. 

We went back to Dr. Andersen's that I might look 
through his collection of ferns. We surprised him at his 
studies, for he belongs to one of the Chautauqua classes in 
history. I think these classes, suggested by tlie Boston 
" Society to Encourage Studies at Home," have a roman- 
tic interest for their members, because they are all ex- 
pected to be busied with the same books and subject at 
the same hour, although it is probable that this does not 
always happen. A chart of the city of Pome, just made 
in colored chalks, lay open on the table and attracted 
my attention. It was the hour for the Doctor's Poman 



314 MY- FIRST HOLIDAY. 

lesson. Miss Lennebacker also was at work. The Atlan- 
tic coast seemed so very near that in a moment my eyes 
filled with homesick tears. Anna Ticknor ought to be a 
proud and happy woman. 

At home I found a telegram bringing the news of the 
death of Benjamin Peirce, and all through the evening 
rose before me that magnificent head M'ith its lambent 
eyes. I do not like my friends to survive their finest 
powers, so I shall not mourn for him, — only keep him 
safe in tender memory " so long as we both do live." 
He would not have been the great mathematician that 
he was if he had not also been a great poet. I have had 
no higher delight in life than to hear him discuss the 
great themes which interested him : his thoughts gushed 
like spring torrents. And on the Executive Board of 
the Association for the Promotion of Social Science, it 
was a great triumph for me to sit between Peirce and 
Agassiz, and see the first turn from his mathematics, and 
the second from his paleontology, to discuss the educa- 
tion of woman and educational suffrage, or rise to wel- 
come Mary Carpenter, fresh from India ; Florence Lees, 
from the ambulances of the Franco-Prussian war ; or 
Mrs. Leonard, from the Woman's Prison at Sherborn. 

Mrs. K. gatliered a few of her friends and neighbors 
together this evening, and a good many excellent stories 
were told. Ora told of her attempts to get a school and 
hoodwink committees (who were not of the slightest use 
unless they could be hoodwinked ! ) in Virginia City. 
After she got a school in Carson she dismissed a boy, 
who persisted in robbing the miners. He would take 
two bits at a time out of their pockets after they went 
to sleep in their bunks ! But the committee could not 
stand his dismissal ! 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 315 

Then we talked of Salt Lake; and, apropos of one of 
my stories, Mr. K., who is not much over sixty years 
old, told how in his early life he had seen a man sell his 
ivife in the town square ! There was a toll-gate near 
the town, not ten miles from Birmingliam, where the 
farmers paid toll on their cattle as they drove them 
through to market. With some dim idea of conforming^ 
to law, or custom at least, the husband drove his wife 
through the toll-gate and put her up at auction where 
he sold his cattle. The readers of the ''College, Market, 
and Court" will remember what point I made of the 
fact that the local governments in England have never 
interfered to prevent this scandal. Interested as I had 
always been in the matter, I had never before seen a 
person who had been eye-witness to such a sale. 

Santa Cruz to Montcreij, CaL, Oct. 13, 1880. — This 
was the day I was to leave Santa Cruz, and very reluct- 
antly I went. At ten this morning Mr. K. came up 
with his spirited colt to give me the greatest treat pos- 
sible, — a farewell drive up the grade. That means six 
miles up the San Lorenzo valley, under tlie magnificent 
redwoods which I saw on Sunday. What leafy coverts 
hundreds of feet below me ! What serried ranks of 
pines and cedars a thousand feet above ! There is 
just danger enough of being whirled off the edge of tlie 
road as one drives, and dropped into the iron jaw of 
the narrow-gauge, to keep one's blood liot. Blue-jays 
screeched from every tree-top. Thousands of tiny yel- 
low-birds whistled, and thick as flies in August the 
squirrels scurried from under the wheels they had not 
the wit to avoid. 

My companion told me a great deal about the un- 



316 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

happy life of Mrs. Farnliam on this coast. He did 
his utmost to prevent her marriage with the dis- 
sipated wretch who was her second husband, and al- 
though she rejected liis counsel, he was her loyal friend 
to the end. On one occasion when this man had left her 
at Santa Cruz, and gone away breathing out threatenings 
and slaughter against her and all her possessions, at a 
time when there were no public conveyances, Mr. K. 
harnessed his team, took Mrs. Farnham in, and ran a 
neck-and-neck race with her lawful protector to San 
Francisco, eighty miles away. 

I wish I knew the country well enough to describe 
this drive witli the fierce eloquence with which it was 
rehearsed to me. Tliey were out two nights. The poor 
woman lay asleep on a bear-skin in the bottom of the 
wagon, while Mr. K., having shaved his beard and put on 
a Spanish hat, was able to pass the desperado without 
recognition. He won the race by five hours, which Mrs. 
Farnham employed in transferring her books and threat- 
ened property from her lodgings to a Santa Cruz schooner 
at anchor in the Bay. Much good did it do ! Her 
husband found her before the schooner sailed, and 
coaxed her into returning to share his fate. This 
woman was as great in capacity for self-delusion as 
in her wise foresight for mankind, and in her spirit 
of general philanthropy. Perhaps the j^resent genera- 
tion will not be able to recall her great work at Sing 
Sing, nor Margaret Fuller's interest in it. 

Dr. Andersen came and brought me some alg?e; 
so did Mrs. Bailey. Both found me walking in the 
garden, beautiful with its evergreens, its trout-ponds, 
and its sundial. I am very loath to leave it, for 
I shall never see such another. Dear to my heart 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 317 

as are the tangled alleys of Ashton, tliey can show no 
tropical grace, no languid charm of constant slow sur- 
prises. What fascinates me in this spot is the supreme 
tact with which Mr. K. has outwitted Nature. Mother 
Earth has been forced to hide her hare and dusty body. 

At half-past three Dick came to drive Ora and my- 
self to the beach. A little steamer from San Francisco 
runs every week down the coast as far as Santa Bar- 
bara. It seemed better to use my pass on this boat to 
Monterey than to go through the mountains to Pajaro, 
and yet I could not bear to give up a last glimpse of 
the Pajaro valley, where there are one hundred and fifty 
thousand acres of the richest land in the world. I 
whizzed through it so unconsciously while I talked 
with Mr. Stearns about Theodore Glancey, and the spirit 
whicli justifies murder and assassination in every corner 
of California, that I shall always feel as if I had seen it 
in a dream. 

At four o'clock this little steamer came panting 
into the Bay. It looked like a crazy water -beetle. 
Not a hundred feet long, it seemed as narrow as a 
knife when it cut the waves of the lovely azure Bay. 
I congratulated myself in silence that the Bay was 
so calm, that the strong breeze which would not al- 
low the boat to keep up her sails was only a " Pacific 
Trade." Two hours were to take us across, and we made 
a hasty survey of her accommodations. It seemed im- 
possible mortals should be expected to sit on the narrow 
slanting benches. Perhaps Ora thought I was cruel not 
to look up a berth, but I was only intent on fresh air. 

How shall I describe our voyage ? The narrow boat 
could not ride even half a Pacific ''roller," far less a whole 
wave. The sea struck us side wise, and each time the boat 



318 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

careened so, that in describing a frightful arc our masts 
seemed truly to. sweep the sea, I held on with both 
hands ; and a poor little woman, emigrating with her 
husband and two children to Santa Barbara, was wild 
and white with fright. I should certainly liave been 
frightened at such a performance on any otlier sea, but 
in my mind I likened our water-bug to a raft, and re- 
membered what Lord Colling wood had said of that. 
The husband of the emigrant said that the furious Aeger 
of the Bay of Fundy had never frightened his wife, and 
she had always felt as if she loved the sea, until the 
slow, steady swell of the Pacific, cut by our razor-like 
keel, drove the life-blood back to her heart. For my- 
self, I felt for the moment in perfect health. I had 
neither headache nor nausea ; and every time we dipped 
down and our passengers began their varied antics, I 
was tempted to indulge in a merry laugh not at all 
suited to my sober years. 

We were all glad when the bracing of a cable told us 
we were near our port.- The fog covered Point Pinos, so 
we could not calculate our distance, yet the moon and 
Jupiter made a strong effort to act as guides. Long be- 
fore we landed we heard the firing of guns. I did not 
believe it was in honor of our sorry vessel with its sor- 
rier crew^ ; so as soon as I got out on the wharf I cried, 
" Wliat are those guns going off for ? " 

" Well, it 's the Republicans," said the driver of the 
hotel wagon, and his very tone told that he was on the 
wrong side. " They've got news about Ohio, T reckon !" 

" Nonsense," said I, " everybody has always known 
that Ohio was Ptepublican ; it must be for Indiana," and 
so indeed it proved. We have saved Indiana by a ma- 
jority of five thousand, and may that comfort the faith- 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 319 

ful servants of the country, who have been shaking in 
their shoes ever since Maine showed us how much mis- 
chief could be done by the personal ambition of one 
man. 

We dropped some of our passengers at a myste- 
rious old adobe house, with a double piazza and a cor- 
ral. There was no sign of welcome or light until the 
driver's whip had started a panel in the outer door, and 
a dark-lantern appeared in the distance. Then rushing 
over the rickety roads, over heavy coast sands or dunes, 
and under a superb oak-grove, which was so like that T 
had driven under at Old Fort, in Beaufort, that I could 
hardly believe my senses, we drove up to the doors of 
the El Monte. Lights streamed forth from every win- 
dow. We were ushered into a great square hall, with 
a fire of oak logs on an old Virginia hearth. There 
were only three or four people in the house, and when 
we had thoroughly warmed ourselves by the great blaz- 
ing fire, we went to bed. 

Monterey, Oct. 14, 1880. — We rose early, and found 
that the hotel stands in the midst of one hundred and 
six acres of live-oaks. Some of them, perhaps the 
greater part, are several hundred years old. They are 
so twisted by the trade-winds, that they remind me of 
old cypresses or stone-pines. Often a single tree throws 
all its foliage to one side, making a long arch over the 
carriage-road after a fashion that would have delighted 
Calame. 

This hotel is built by the railway kings out of their 
own pockets, and far in advance of any actual need. 
If they desired to be reimbursed there would be no liope 
for them, but fortunately they do not. The money the 



320 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

United States Government gave to the Transconti- 
nental Kail way project it will get back in time, through 
such improvements. The kings are ambitious to create 
here the finest watering-place in the world, and I think 
they may succeed. 

The El Monte is built after an Eastlake pattern. 
It is three hundred and eighty-five feet in length with 
wings, and it is one hundred and fifteen deep. It .has 
a central tower and three floors, including the attic. It 
is more like Dr. Pierce's Invalid Hotel in Buffalo than 
any Eastern affair, but is much larger. There are par- 
lors, billiard-rooms, and corridors on the first floor, and 
the great hall which received us last night is also the 
office. It contains on this floor twenty-eight suites of 
rooms, each with a bath-room. The second storey has 
forty-eight suites, — and so on. There are three towers, 
the central one eighty feet high. Twelve hundred Eng- 
lish walnut-trees have been planted in the park, and it 
has a railway station of its own. 

Tlie beach is a quarter of a mile away, and is con- 
nected with the house by drives and walks. There is a 
race-course, and a little lake where children can safely 
row about. After exactly such a breakfast as Delmonico 
would offer, a sort of fare that I always designate as 
"starvation rations," we hired a spring- wagon with two 
horses, and drove off to Mount Carmel. The road is 
uphill all the w^ay, shaded with magnificent oaks, and 
here and there with walnuts. At last the Carmel 
Eange came into view, height above height, glowing, 
lucent, opaline, in the sun. The Carmel Kiver flows 
at its base toward the sea ; and I suppose, although my 
travelling map does not show it, that the Carmel is a 
spur of Mount Diablo. The valley of the Carmel has 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 321 

a rich black soil, and is said to be the best dairy land 
in the State. Several thousands of acres here belong to 
the Athertons of Menlo Park. 

We see the picturesque and lovely towers of the 
Mission, standing clean and clear upon a hill, long 
before we get to the church, passing through a valley 
planted by the Jesuits more than a hundred years 
ago. It is strange how far back a century seems to 
til row things in this Spanish dominion ! If I were 
to say a building was two hundred and fifty years 
old in Plymouth County, the time would not seem 
so far away as one hundred will make it here. The 
old pear-orchard hangs full of brilliant red and yel- 
low fruit. When we pick it, it is as void of flavor 
as the apples of the Dead Sea, and I suppose for the 
same alkaline reason. The man who has charcje of the 
orchard took a twenty-five cent toll toward the repair 
of the dear old church, which I should have been glad 
to quadruple. 

We lumbered through the gateway into a rough field, 
from which we could overlook hundreds of acres once 
covered by buildings which Indian hands erected, and 
of which the ruins are an involuntary tribute to the in- 
telligence and artistic skill of the natives. 

This church, by far the prettiest and most elaborate 
of the Missions, is in fact the most ruinous. It is the 
only one I have seen in which no service could possibly 
be held ; and, as we know, the churches at San Gabriel 
and Santa Barbara are in constant use. This Mission 
at Mount Carmel is called San Carlos, and it was 
built in 1770 by the famous Junipero Serra. It is a 
great deal like the old cathedral at Salamanca in its 
general look, and its walls slope outward at the base, 

21 



322 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

just enough to make them look safe and solid. In its 
church-yard lie the remains of fifteen of the early gov- 
ernors of the State, and in the church is the grave of 
the great Christian apostle Junipero. 

I have heard people talk as if the early history 
of these Missions had been only one long story of 
fraud and cruelty on the part of the priests, but it 
could not have been so. The grandchildren of the 
natives who built this church have a traditionary love 
for its founder. The chancel is full of recent graves ; 
and only last week a very old Indian from the hills 
was buried, at his own request, close to Father Junipero. 
An unfailing spring of pure water runs through this 
Mission, and the Padres took advantage of it. Here, in 
1826, were raised the first potatoes ever seen in Cali- 
fornia. At that time the Fathers had ninety thousand 
cattle, fifty thousand sheep, two thousand horses, as 
many calves, and three liundred and seventy yoke of 
oxen, forty thousand dollars in silver, and merchandise 
to a greater amount. Ten years later the Mexican gov- 
ernment confiscated the whole ! 

The Mount Carmel Mission is built of sandstone, cov- 
ered, where needful, with a fine and firm cement. The 
wall-curtain, which contains the principal entrance, has 
a large belfry-tower to the left, surmounted by a dome. 
On the top of this is an iron cross, of lovely Moorish 
arabesque. The bells were approached by an outside 
stone stair built into the walls, and the roof of a bap- 
tistery just beyond. To the right of tlie curtain is a 
two-storeyed stone tower, enclosing a circular stairway 
with port-holes for guns. It is accessible still to the 
very top, and was evidently built for defence alone. 
Over the great door is a sort of rose-window, surrounded 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 323 

with fine mouldings, — an evidence of very great skill in 
building. It is slightly out of the perpendicular, and 
must have been so in the beginning. Inside the great 
door we find two or three feet of earth, covering the tiles 
which once made the floor ; and the whole interior is 
filled with the graves of those Indians who have de- 
sired to lie there, since the body of its founder was 
discovered at the foot of the high altar. Many have 
been brought from the recesses of the Sierra. Some 
bodies had been very lately interred, and a shingle at 
each end serves for head and foot stones. 

The vestibule is separated from the nave by a flat- 
tened arch of cut stone, just ready to fall. The whole 
roof is gone, and its broken arches are replaced by 
rude rafters which must have been put in to support 
the thatch after the quaint old tiles had fallen. On 
the sides the windows are set in deep embrasures, 
but small and square like those in King's Chapel. 
They were never glazed, only barred. On the left 
of the entrance behind the belfry is the loveliest little 
baptistery, with an arched roof and a font. I was never 
tired of lookino: at it. It seems to be built in the 
thickness of the wall ; and what might be called a C(m- 
tinuation of this, running half-way up the nave, still 
holds the bodies of the old Franciscans in the close 
embrace of indestructible cements. They were buried 
standinor, and a second tier of funeral-cells, built against 
the first, stops half-way, with an unfinished vault, and 
makes an awkward break in the wall. Behind this, 
close to the outside belfry-stairs, was a sort of closet to 
be entered from the open air, which the Padres called 
" a receiving tomb," — and here the body stood in state, 
while preparations were made to wall it in. 



324 MY FIEST HOLIDAY. 

Half-way up the nave, against the opposite wall, is 
the pulpit, reached by a stone stair, and behind it a 
large " tiring room," still accessible and well protected. 
The altar still keeps its place ; and the chancel has the 
same beautiful grained arch as the baptistery. Be- 
tween the pulpit and the chancel, to the left, is a large 
plain chapel, still roofed in, and often used. 

What chiefly impresses me in the whole building is 
the excellence of the Indian work. The whole form of 
the building is so familiar to me that I feel sure the 
old Fathers must have had both a picture and a plan for 
the natives to work from, — engraved, perhaps, in some 
old Spanish work on church architecture. The outside 
stair, leading to the belfry, is so skilfully set in as to add 
greatly to the beauty of the wall. How home-like all 
this region must have seemed to these first comers ! 
Three hundred yards away are a row of small square 
vats, nicely finished in cement, each large enough to 
hold a single hide. A tannery was the necessary ad- 
junct of a Mission in those days, and the monks of 
that time were neither indolent nor thriftless. 

In 1602, in the reign of Philip III., Viscayno first 
sailed into this lovely bay, and set up a cross at the head 
of a ravine, or chine, clothed with cypresses. The spot 
was named for tlie then existing Count of Monterey, who 
was Viceroy of Mexico. Here Viscayno intended at 
first to build a church, but it was one hundred and 
sixty-six years before another white foot pressed the 
soil. In the fall of 1769 the Governor of California 
came over-land from San Diego and set up another 
cross. 

In 1770, Junipero Serra came hither by sea, landed 
on the day of Pentecost, and celebrated High Mass. 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 325 

From this time the town grew till it became the capital 
and principal port of the territory, not only under 
Spanish rule, but for a long time under the Mexican, 
and even after the United States took possession. 

It was in 1850, I believe, that San Jose became the 
capital ; and Monterey then fell to building " Castles in 
Spain," the only kind of building that went on till the 
bonanza kings began the hotel a year or more ago. 

Tiie Bay of Monterey, famous for its heavy rollers, 
and for a safe anchorage which could accommodate all 
the navies of the world, is twenty-eight miles across its 
mouth; and the Salinas Eiver enters it a little nearer 
Santa Cruz than Monterey. The beautiful Mission 
stands near the mouth of the river Carmel, sur- 
rounded by vast heaps of adobe, — the ruins of what 
were once barracks, dormitories, school-rooms, convents, 
and the like. Its beautiful orchards and vegetable gar- 
dens are still green. 

The blue of the sea; the translucent mountain domes; 
the glittering heaps of snowy sand ; Point Lobos, a 
long rocky point, like the Gurnet, rushing out to sea ; 
the distorted cypresses, so like the stone-pines of the 
Eiviera, — make up a landscape which, for sunny 
charm, must be unequalled on this continent, as it 
seems to me. 

Here and there, within the Mission walls, are the 
stone-heaps of the " Avenger," piled above the nameless 
graves of assassins, as in the old Hebrew days. Here, 
at last, is added to enchanting sunlight and enticing 
sliore that charm of old association which teems from 
the Lida of Venice or Genoa. 

We mount our wagon, and drive under the eaves of 
the keeper's cottage to ask for some fresh water and 



326 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

some bright- colored pears of Sodom. Tliey were brought 
by a bare-footed Spanish maid, whose straight black 
hair hung over her eyes, as if she had been a Shetland 
pony. 

Then we swept away to the left, over lovely slopes, 
under overhanging oak and gnarled cypress, where the 
"'water-drops" the sea-nymphs shake from their hair 
turn to agate and crystal. Here we paused under a 
tree to see whether our eyes would ever tire, whether 
indeed we should be able to leave the delicious spot. 
The blue main, like a great floor of lajns-lazuli, met 
the overhanging vault of sparkling sapphire in a long 
line of soft invisible color. To the right, the deep 
shadow of the hills ; and to the left, some low rocks, 
saucily set in sputtering foam, broke the serene cliarm. 

I sent the driver down to the beach to find shells 
and pebbles for Isabel. The guide-book is always 
telling me what wonderful things are accessible at 
low tide ! But a low tide I have never yet found in 
California. 

All along the points the United States Coast Survey 
has set up its triangular standards. One of these, on a 
very lofty point, was surrounded by a group of men, 
and I hoped to find some officers I knew. Tliey 
turned out to be some Portuguese sailors watching 
for a whale ! Whales are very common here ; sharks 
also drift into the Bay. Court-yards are paved with tlie 
vertebrse of whales. Side-walks are curbed by their 
mighty jaws. More than once we drove round gigan- 
tic skulls, and skeletons grinned at us from the shop 
windows. 

We drove by a Chinese fishing ground, where a Ce- 
lestial village occupies itself with catching and drying 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 327 

tomcod to export to China. Next came two whale- 
boats, manned and waiting ; and in a moment more we 
were rusliing throngh heavy groves of trees, choked by 
mighty fallen limbs, by underbrnsh cut out from tlie 
newly opened carriage-road, and by trunks that tlie 
storms had prostrated, till we came to Cypress Point. 

And here T must confess my sins. When Mr. Kirby 
showed me the Jerusalem cedar and the Monterey 
cypress trained and trimmed into stiff cones in his 
front yard, as if Mr. Turveydrop had been head gar- 
dener, I utterly refused to believe that either was akin 
to the great deodar of the Himalas, whose picture is so 
often sold as that of the cedars of Lebanon. But here 
I saw the cypress in its home, bearing its foliage in 
mighty shelving layers, bending deliant to the trade- 
wind, — stony, arrogant, and monumental. The thing 
looked more probable, and I felt that if the story were 
not true it ought to be. 

There is a very curious limitation to the growth of 
tlie cypress all along the shore, which I should be glad 
to understand. It is easily propagated in public squares 
or gardens, yet here it has never crossed the road ! The 
cypress was always between my carriage and the sea. 
Toward the hills, live-oaks were frequently interspersed 
with pines, but never a cypress. The common people 
say the line is very distinctly marked. 

A little way on we passed Seal Eocks, on which the 
stupid lubbers were clambering up and dov/n, as if for 
a marine circus to amuse the tomcods. The acrobat 
generally rolls over and falls with an ugly splash. 

Then we came to Moss Beach, where oddly dressed 
collectors were picking up corallines, — pink, white, and 
gi'een. Here I stopped for a while to gather small lim- 



328 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

pets and prettily rounded bits of abalone which the 
waves had polished. 

With what words shall I render the glory of sea and 
sky ? All language seems too poor. On the Eastern 
coast I could never have had such color or such bril- 
liancy except united to a degree of heat that would 
have made both unendurable. 

Carmel and Santa Cruz jut out from the Diablo to 
enclose the Bay. From Cypress Point, gay autumn 
flowers straggle in and out the tangled trunks and 
underbrush. On the Gabilan Eange, serrated ridges, 
feathered with pines, melt into the filmy horizon. The 
foam crawled along the silvery beach, and seemed to 
gnaw away at the rocky points. Here and there a 
schooner was stranded ; it seemed " a painted ship upon 
a painted ocean." The quail ran out to the very sands, 
thick as tlie blades of dry beach-grass, — the tamest 
creatures I ever saw of tlie name. The Sierra of Santa 
Lucia drooped — brown, barren, velvety — to the shore. 
The Moro rose into the still firmament like a lifted 
finger, warning us of dangers under the angry crags. 
The waves broke at the feet of enormous sand dunes, 
whose snowy sides, tufted and freckled with juniper, 
promised wealth to all the glass-factories in America. 
Just beyond me a jutting crag met a rocky isle. Partly 
between tliem rose the mighty crest of the incoming tide. 
Again and again I saw it, — the reflected sunlight break- 
m<y from the water itself, as it was held aojain and 
again like a sapphire in the air, before it fell and was 
shivered into a tliousand glowing fragments. 

We turned away from the lighthouse here, and drove 
briskly into the famous shades of the Pacific Grove. 
This is a place like the well known Ocean Grove near 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 329 

ISTew York. A hundred acres well cleared are filled 
with neat cottages, and there is an amphitheatre with 
seats for live thousand people. It is about three miles 
from Monterey, and commands a charming sea^view. 
We sat down in the porch of a deserted cottage to 
eat our sandwiches and drink some mineral water out 
of a rusty tin dipper, while our driver went away 
ostensibly to "feed his horse." 

I have not wanted to spoil your enjoyment of this 
delightful drive by telling you how uneasy I had 
been all through it. The horse looked sick to me 
when we started, and the driver, who owned the 
team, abused him from the very beginning. I inter- 
fered several times, but was told the creature had 
got the " devil " in him and must have it " whipped 
out ! " He had been biting all the horses in the cor- 
ral before he was harnessed. What I should have 
done if this had happened on a New England road 
you can guess, but here I felt at the mercy of the 
driver. In getting into the wagon in the morning my 
foot went through the bottom. Having satisfied myself 
that extreme care might prevent a broken ankle, I 
became critical, and investigated the condition of the 
" team." 

The near horse was restive from the first, and his 
sides bore traces of a recent severe flogging. Our 
driver claimed to be a Virginian, nephew of the man 
for whom the town of Martinsburg was named. He 
seemed a pleasant fellow enough, but told more than 
he knew ; and, when the horse refused to drink, declared 
that he " would give him fits." When we stopped, the 
creature panted so violently that I felt very uncomfort- 
able. As soon as we had finished our lunch, Ora 



330 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

strayed along the sea, and I went in search of the 
stables which were at some distance across the road. 
There I found the Virginian trying to bleed his best 
horse, but he could accomplish nothing, — the lancet 
did not draw. I insisted on an exchange of horses, 
but there was not a horse within three miles. His 
head was then tied up ; gunpowder and water were 
given him ; his owner declared him well ; and, because 
I knew I had not strength to walk to town, we got in 
and drove back to the village. There the words, "Where 
will you go. Ma'am ?" were answered pretty sharply by 
these others : " Straight to your stables to get another 
horse." 

The driver dropped us at a Spanish fisherman's little 
cot upon the shore. Perhaps he had heard me say how 
sorry I was to give up going to the lighthouse on ac- 
count of the horse. I had expected to find there some 
mosses and water-drops on sale. At all events my 
Spanish fish-wife showed me finer specimens than any 
ever bought at the Moro. She swam out to an island 
six miles from shore this very morning, carrying a 
netted lap-bag in front of her, and seizing the great 
branches of the algfB as she encountered them. This vig- 
orous creature washes them clean of all adliesive matter, 
leaves them in soak in pure water over night, and then 
presses them in dryers made of the largest newspapers. 
Some of the branches were eicfhteen inches lonf^, and 
had to be bent in the middle to be pressed. True films 
of woven hair they seemed, just lightly flushed with 
rose-color, purple, and green. The most delicate lace- 
work is not more captivating than these mosses treated 
in this way. The fish-wife assured me that they would 
neither break nor wrinkle, and she rolled mine up in their 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 331 

newspaper driers as carelessly as if they had been Bre- 
ton scarfs. If I had wholly believed her I would have 
invested largely ; but I remembered my corallines. 

This woman had on her mantel a large glass jar of 
water-drops, the very finest I had seen. She would not 
sell any ; and if I liad been wholly up to California 
manners, I suppose I should have taken some and left 
ample payment beliind. As my heart was quite willing 
I must be responsible for the sin ; yet I felt a little 
ashamed of the overt act ! What a queer state of 
things it is, if you stop to think of it ! She could 
easily have replaced them, for I have no doubt they are 
to go to New York next " steamer day !" Have I ever 
told you how odd it seems that all business matters 
here should still be regulated by " steamer day," just as 
they were when these vessels were the only means of 
communication with the East ? Money is called in, 
notes are given, and accounts are all settled with 
reference to this bi-monthly occasion. If that is not 
Spanish, I do not know what is ! 

From the trig little fish -wife we drove with a fresh 
horse to the Catholic Church. It was built in 1794, and 
has a pretty baptistery, a little like that at San Carlos. 
On the walls hang some old pictures brought from Car- 
mel when the Government took possession of it in 
1835. Two heavy, solid silver candlesticks, about 
seven feet high, stood each side the altar, and in 
front, mounted on a lofty silver rod, was a silver cru- 
cifix gilded. 

If I had not been so upset by the sight of the lancet 
and the suffering horse, I should have looked up vest- 
ments and curios ; but I do not think I lost mucli, and 
I had not th'e heart for it. We drove about in search of 



332 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. •• 

shells and photographs, but could find neither. We 
were delighted with the dead-alive old places ; and 
at last took possession of an open studio, sent out 
for the proprietor who was lunching somewhere on gar- 
lic and tomatoes, and really bought one photograph of 
Mount Carmel ! Rambling stone walls topped with turf, 
adobe walls roofed in with tiles, ran about the town in 
inexplicable ways. No wonder so many Spaniards 
have taken natural wash-outs for castle walls, and un- 
dermined them in search of treasure ! A ruined adobe 
looks exactly like a wash-out, and, in fact, it is one. 
The old Spanish houses have two storeys surrounded by 
pillared porches. They run round a square court in 
most cases, and the inclosed space is a half-tropical 
garden. I would have liked to go into one of these 
courtyards, for through an arched carriage-way I saw 
flowers and fountains and scarlet curtains gleaming in 
the sun. 

We saw the building w^hich served as headquarters 
for Fremont. The first Constitution of California, a far 
better state paper than the last, was signed by AVilliam 
M. Ginn and thirty-nine others, in 1849, — signed in a 
long, low, white-washed building of two storeys. This 
is made like the nest of the mason-bee, — being a long 
series of separate cells. As there are no active little 
grubs to eat a way through, each cell is entered from 
an outside gallery. 

There are several '' zinc houses " in town, — a thing I 
never saw before. The plates fit closely together, and 
they are said to be serviceable. They were sent from 
England. 

A lady who has written about California, after a two- 
years' residence, says the poor Spaniards are clean ! If 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 333 

I were to express my mind after a two-months' expe- 
rience, I sliould say that the word filthy was inad- 
equate to any conception of the condition of their 
liouses. The truth probably is that the Spaniards are 
just like other people, — sometimes tidy and sometimes 
not. 

A little way out of town we were shown a spot off 
shore where the corvette was wrecked that had once 
taken Bonaparte away from Elba. 

We had hardly reached the hotel when we heard that 
our poor horse was dead. I wrote till dinner, and then 
sat down by a big oak-fire to read. I had a captivating- 
book. I do not know, in literature, two more charming 
love-stories than those of " Cesare Donato " and " Lord 
Brackenbury." 

MontereTj, Oct. 15, 1880. — After breakfast we were 
shown through the hotel and into the tower, wdiere, over 
the heads of the live-oaks, w^e caught the gleaming 
of the distant sea. A vista should be cut from the 
hotel to the silver sands. Our driver told us yesterday, 
as he jerked us over the shocking roads, that in a 
week two hundred men would be here at work, and 
thirty miles of perfect macadamized road would be fin- 
ished before another season, with hot and cold and 
Turkish baths on the beach, bowling-alleys and all 
the etceteras of sea-side resorts. The house is beauti- 
fully built. All the panelling is exquisitely grooved 
and moulded. It is furnished and finished in a manner 
that would not suit the Pacific shore for half a century, 
if the inhabitants had to be taxed to bring it about. 
And liere you will perhaps permit me to say that I 
have never seen men successful in forestallin.2; time or 



334 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

Providence. When I lived in Canada tliirty-five years 
ago, the gentlemen at tlie head of the Educational 
Department were men of culture hnd enterprise. Un- 
der their auspices Canada imported the finest school 
apparatus in the world, and undertook in her normal 
and model schools to lead the way to its use. But she 
could not import intelligent teachers or an educated 
public; and the treasures grew dusty in the national 
storehouse. When I returned to the United States I 
found Massachusetts wholly without various charts and 
models easy to be had in Canada. I sent back to To- 
ronto, and was proudly allowed to purchase the speci- 
mens I wanted ; and Massachusetts has never since 
needed any prompting of that sort. The apparatus here 
at Monterey is intended for a public tliat does not yet 
exist. Will the heirs of the present proprietors feel pride 
enough in the project to keep it up at their expense ? 

The tiled fire-places filled with blazing logs are a 
delight to our eyes. The rooms lately occupied by Presi- 
dent Hayes are no finer than all the rest. Indeed, there 
is little choice of rooms, except that some look out upon 
a lovely little circular lawn planted with tropical plants 
and sheltered by majestic trees, and that a few have 
bath-rooms attached. 

This hotel, as well as all the improvements in the 
town, were undertaken by the bonanza kings, who own 
the Central and Southern Pacific Ptailways, and who are 
supremely indifferent to justice and comfort in all that 
concerns those roads. Two of them are Governor Stan- 
ford and Charles Crocker, Eecently, in celebrating his 
own golden wedding, Governor Stanford said : — 

" We are the people who know how to use either wealth 
or poverty. I can remember the time when a tent to cook 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 335 

in and a tent to sleep in constituted my sole earthly posses- 
sions ; and my wife and I had to lie very still when it 
rained, because there was a tin pan between us to catch the 
drippings from the canvas." 

I do not know Governor Stanford, but as regards 
bonanza kings in general, I could not endorse this 
statement. It is not to be expected that the millions 
which have been " shovelled up " should be put to wise 
uses, and as a rule they are not. The sudden rise of 
purse-proud and uncultivated families seems in many 
places not only to extinguish the old wholesome 'New 
England element, but to thrust some of the kindest and 
wisest entirely out of sight. 

It is curious that either covetousness or pride should 
lead men to such an undertaking as this at Monterey, 
which will be of incalculable benefit to the discontented 
working classes for a time, and it may be a great pleas- 
ure and profit to the travelling public. In this way the 
gold, wdiich energy has extorted from the Sierras, will be 
forced into circulation. Can it be a solid growth or a 
lasting benefit ? It does not seem proper to set experi- 
ments of luxury like this side by side with the building 
of Western or Transcontinental railways. An Illinois 
fiirmer, once showing me thousands of acres of corn that 
it was impossible to send to market, at the same time 
speaking of the need of railroads, said : " Do you wonder 
that we are ready to lie for tliem, go in debt for them, 
nay, even steal for them, if that would build them ? " 

While you ponder the question, the following facts 
are suggestive. I arrived at evening and went away 
on the second day just after breakfast. My bill was 
made out for the ivhole of the day of departure ! I 
wanted a ticket for San Francisco, with a " stop-over " 



336 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

for San Jose. A througli ticket to San Francisco, about 
one hundred and twenty miles away, could be had for 
S3. 50. If I took a "stop-over" for San Jose, about 
half way there, it cost $5.50 ; for it is the present 
policy of the road to force every traveller either to San 
Francisco or Monterey, and to ignore what lies be- 
tween ! The hotel is to be kept open all the winter at a 
loss, and of course the cheap fare which entices the visitor 
must serve both ways. After a little inquiry I bought a 
ticket to San Jose for $1.75, and found that by paying 
the same price from San Jose to San Francisco I could 
accomplish my object. Certainly it was not necessary 
for the " heathen Chinee " to emigrate to California to 
instruct her citizens in " ways that are dark " ! 

I have not said a word about the climate of Monterey, 
because I have not thought of it since I came. We 
have not been out after dark, but mornings and evenings 
have been very cold. Ora has had plenty of employ- 
ment in running after my shawl, and I have no doubt 
that the variations are as great as at Santa Cruz. Mrs. 
K. has suffered severely there, and declares that " neu- 
ralgia and rheumatisni are to be had there in stock and 
on demand." Certainly I never saw so many sufferers 
from both as in this boasted land, — not so much among 
people who have come here for their health as among 
those who have lived here for thirty or forty years. 
The number of invalids in California is a great draw- 
back to the pleasure of travel. I don't mean to com- 
plain of them, poor souls ! but when a person goes abroad 
for rest or health, it is just as unwise to go intentionally 
into a family of invalids as it is to group insane people 
by the hundred and expect them to get well. Both are 
insanitary experiments. 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 337 

There is a special depot near the hotel, and thither we 
went. Opposite to it is a superb oak, twisted and 
knotted into the very fashion of an old olive. We 
passed great dome-like sand-dunes between us and the 
sea, freckled with a low juniper bush. Tar- weed lighted 
our way with its golden stars. The heavenly blue of 
the sea melted into a long unbroken horizon of silver 
fog woven thin, yet close enough to hide the other side 
of the Bay. Then came wheat fields and stacks of straw, 
waiting, I suppose, to go to the paper-mill at Stockton. 
Wise farmers lay this straw thickly over their orchards 
and door-yards to keep down the clouds of dust. We 
came upon the dry bed of a river full of green grass, 
glowing like an emerald against the silver sand-dunes. 

WHien we reached Castroville a bright little fellow 
entered the car, dressed as a gentleman's son might be. 
He was nevertheless a beggar. Not more than ten years 
old, he had already lost one arm by an accident. His 
cards of solicitation which he laid on our laps were quite 
elegantly printed. That was some sentimentalist's pet 
charity ! How much better to put him in the way of 
an education and make him independent ! The gentle- 
men all gave him money, — tlie ladies did not. I 
thought I saw the boy puzzling over this, and I wanted 
to tell him that it happened because the few ladies in 
the car had thought pretty seriously on such subjects. 

At Salma, where there is a good deal of salt marsh, 
the dry lagoons were full of a short crimson grass, which 
sent a warm glow across the landscape. Out of it here 
and there pricked skeleton trees as white as snow. Their 
naked arms looked pitiful. 

We passed through one tunnel after leaving Monterey, 
and I believe it is the only one on this road. The nar- 

22 



338 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

row-gauge road through the mountains to Santa Cruz is 
full of them. There is a little town named San Juan 
somewhere about here to which I wished to find my 
way, but no one would tell me how to go to it. I have 
already told you how impossible it is to get any answer 
to my questions. The railway men cannot tell you 
about connections, know nothing in short beyond their 
own sections, not even enough to tell you where to 
apply for information. People you meet know nothing 
which does not interest them for some personal reason. 
From Sal ma we ran on through a lovely valley, with 
Mount Diablo on one side and the foot-hills on the 
other, as far as Coyote. There the scenery begins to re- 
semble that at Menlo Park nearer to San Francisco. 
Wide fields of grain or scattered groves of superb oaks, 
looking like overgrown apple orchards, diversified the 
surface of a wide spreading plain. 

At San Jose I parted from Ora with regret. She 
has been a charming travelling companion, whom I 
would gladly take with me on a longer journey. I- 
liad come to San Jose to meet a friend whom I had 
not seen for more than thirty years. Charlotte H. 
was my next door neighbor in Portsmouth when my 
young Professor was a baby. It was her hands that 
dressed for him his first Christmas-tree, and hung it 
among other things with tlie famous Fairweather dia- 
monds. I remember as if it were yesterday how for- 
lorn I felt, when she came in to tell me she was going 
West. Those were the heart-searching yet somewhat 
dreary days of Brook Farm ; and, filled with a desire to 
try a new life, Charlotte had written to her far-away 
cousin, Mr. Eipley. George Eipley had by this time 
found out that the disciples of Fourier were men and 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 339 

women like their neighbors, and not angels in disguise ; 
he had seen that wherever men associated together the 
obvious evils of social life would appear ; so lie did little 
in the failing hours of Brook Farm to tempt my Char- 
lotte away. Still he told her of a Western experiment 
in a more prosperous State, and thither my bright youDg 
neighbor went and found after a time her fate. I knew 
that she had married, had children, and was the wife of 
a prosperous fruit grower in Michigan. Imagine my 
astonishment, when I reached California, to find her two 
grown daughters studying Froebel with Miss Marvoedel, 
and to receive a warm invitation to visit her in San 
Jose ! 

I found myself apparently unexpected. I had pre- 
paid a telegram to Mrs. M. last night, and when I found 
no one at the depot did not like to hurry away, lest 
Charlotte should come for me and be disappointed ; so 
I waited till the very last, and then took a hack. I was 
to go to Mission Street, but the driver declared there 
was no such street in town. In my utter ignorance of 
people and things, I thought it best to drive to a bank. 
The cashier came out bare-headed, directory in hand, 
and gave a sharp rebuke to the driver, who trotted off 
with such indefinite energy that I half expected to find 
Mission Street in the next town. It was, however, on 
the outskirts, about two miles from the Court House. 
They call San Jose the Garden City. It seemed very 
flat, and I drove everywhere through streets lined with 
trees. 

The Court House I have spoken of is, after the capi- 
tol at Sacramento, the finest building in the State. The 
top of the dome, which surmounts it in true State-house 
fashion, is one hundred and fifteen feet from the floor. 



340 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

and its architecture is Eoman Corinthian, — if any one 
knows exactly what that is ! San Jose is the county 
seat of Santa Clara, situated in a beautiful valley. It is 
said to be extremely healthy and well suited to lung- 
diseases. That was what induced Charlotte's husband 
to come here. I cannot well understand why a fruit 
grower, who has passed the greater part of his life 
in the open air, should be in danger of lung trouble. 

Arrived at the house, after what seemed a very long 
drive, I found myself warmly welcomed. My friend 
had grown handsome with the passing years, and it was 
pleasant to look in her motherly face. No telegram 
had been received. 

For some months the little hall in which the Uni- 
tarians worship has been closed, and almost the first 
question asked was whether I would be willing to fill 
the pulpit on Sunday. 

After lunch Charlotte and I drove over to Santa 
Clara, stopping at a newspaper office on the way to in- 
sert a notice of the promised service. Santa Clara is 
five miles from Mr. M.'s house and three miles from the 
Court House. A beautiful Alameda, or road planted 
with three rows of trees, mostly aged willows, connects 
the two. The Santa Clara Mission was the first settle- 
ment, and led to that of San Jose. 

We went this afternoon to Eberhardt's tan-yard. 
Last week he had sent Mr. K. some lovely white goat- 
skins, which I thought would make pretty presents 
for some of my Eastern friends. I had a letter of intro- 
duction. We found a beautiful tan-yard, but no Mr. 
Eberhardt. The foreman showed me the goat-skins. 
There were hundreds of them laid up in sulphur in a 
dark outhouse, but I could not find one as well dressed 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 341 

as those I had seen at Santa Cruz. Mr. K.'s tan-yard 
is a j)erfect poem : I always meant to go to it with 
himself, but I never did. Everything is exquisitely 
clean and in perfect order, and tliere is a quiet but faith- 
ful oversight of the comfort of the men, who are boarded 
in the yard. 

We drove over to Santa Clara through tlie business 
streets, looking exactly like those of any American to\A'n 
of fifteen thousand inhabitants. The houses stand 
separately in gardens, which have a look like those in 
Central New York. Some of the estates occupy a whole 
block. At last we came to the Alameda. This triple 
row of trees running for two miles was originally planted 
to give the padres a shaded walk from the old Mission 
to a new churcli and convent in San Jose ; and not that 
only, — the friar who proposed it thought it might break 
the rush of the half crazy hordes of buffalo and cattle 
which swept over the valley in those days, to the great 
alarm of the wayfarer. His brethren laughed at the 
idea ; but the gentle hearted Indians heard the talk, and 
soon set the broad road with three lines of willow twigs 
from a neighboring brook. Many of these have since 
been replaced by poplars and oaks, so as to form a 
boulevard, on which are the finest residences in San 
Jose. Many of the farmers' fields are bordered by tall 
poplars, a fashion that I like. It cannot be pretended 
that they injure the fields by shading them, but they 
must suck up a great deal of moisture. 

In the evening a Mrs. Watkins, who I am told is a 
candidate for election to the Legislature, came to see me. 
Last year, at the last moment, she put her name upon 
the Eepublican ticket for the School Board. The man 
elected was a very popular man, many years a resident 



342 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

here ; yet he had not a dozen more votes than Mrs. 
Watkins, who seems a remarkably bright, clear headed 
woman. 

As to the Legislature, every one knows how sincerely 
I believe that women must work for and attain to suf- 
frage before social life will have any chance of har- 
monious development. But I do not wish any woman 
to accept office until she can do so with the cordial con- 
sent of men. I do not feel in the least in a hurry about 
suffrage. I know it is coming, and I want women to 
work steadily and sensibly for it, because such work 
is in itself educational. The delay of woman suffrage 
for a decade will not do half so much harm as the con- 
ferring of it while the bulk of our women are indiffer- 
ent, indolent, or unprepared. 

San Jose, Oct 16, 1880. — Late last evening I received 
a few encouraging words from Calcutta. They have been 
long delayed, but you will know what relief they give. 

I am sorry I was not here on the fourteenth, when 
the news from Vermont, Indiana, and Ohio came in. 
Then paraded the finest torch-light procession which 
San Jose ever saw. Every man of character and po- 
sition turned out. Mr. M. himself carried a torch. 
While I was in Santa Cruz the Democrats wrote " 329" 
on every shutter and flag-pole. Mystic numbers these, 
which were supposed to destroy Garfield's character at 
a glance. Mr. K.'s wrath rose high, and he uttered 
some sharp threat. They did better here. The Eepub- 
licans carried the mystic figures as a badge of honor 
on banner and blaze ! 

After lunch Charlotte took me two or three miles 
away to Eock's Nursery, where I went to see some won- 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 343 

derful cherry trees, two years old, whicli will be bearing 
next year. Eock, who is a German, was just going to 
the city, and could not give us his personal attention. I 
was much surprised to hear him say that the frost had 
already come, and that the last two nights had destroyed 
his vines. Pumpkins and tomatoes certainly looked 
black enough, but unless tomatoes can be better than 
any I have seen in the State, they will not be much of 
a loss to anybody. The dahlias were still bright, and 
the young cherry and plum trees showed a wonderful 
growth. Some Hungarian prunes were drying on a 
board. The green-houses were nearly empty, but still 
held some large scarlet begonias. 

We went next to Fox's, — a garden famous for rare 
Australian plants. We found his glass houses full of 
ferns, orchids, and palms. I saw a green vine of great 
extent, thickly covered with a bright orange plum, about 
an inch and a half long, without suspecting I had ever 
seen it before. It was a passion-flower, and Mr. Fox 
gathered some of the fruit for me. The skin was very 
thin and half empty. What it held was a table-spoon- 
ful of white meringue, as light as if it had just been 
beaten. At the heart was half a tea-spoonful of bril- 
liant red currant jelly with four apple seeds in it. The 
whole thing was a little less acid than the confectioner 
w^ould have made it. I wonder if anything ever was 
made on this planet of which some hint does not exist 
in Nature ? Mr. Fox says that the climate of Japan is 
very bad for fruit growers, and that the Japs have to 
pet every seed vessel that matures there into something 
eatable. They eat a great many of these passiflors. 
The fruit of the camellia looks like a small green 
apple. It had split open on one side and showed some 



344 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

dark seeds. The tough green rind was as hard as the 
burr of the horse chestnut. 

Mr. Fox is an Englishman, and a bachelor, and was one 
of the very last to employ Chinese labor. His answer, 
when I asked him why he did it, is worth recording. 
" I could not find honest and faithful laborers," he re- 
plied. " My men went away every Sunday and came 
back drunk. They shirked whenever I was out of sight. 
The Chinaman sticks to his work, does as he is told, and 
however he may steal at other times, touches nothing of 
mine while his contract with me lasts." 

This is in accordance with my own conviction that 
honest and faithful workers have nothing to fear from 
the competition of any race. Throughout California 
tliere is the greatest outcry on the subject of labor and 
wages, — an outcry with which I feel no sympathy. A 
woman cannot get up to sj^eak in a social science 
meeting, without raving fanatically against capitalists. 
The popular outcry against the Chinese is an outcry 
against low wages. Let no man complain to me of this 
till he can show me a piece of really well-done me- 
chanical work, something that I have not seen for years 
until I went to Salt Lake City. In Boston, workingraen 
used to come to me with petitions for an eight-hour 
law. I never signed them. I used to tell them plainly 
that once or twice in my life I had had to support 
myself, and that I never could do it without eighteen 
hours' work in a day. There is only one way to pay for 
labor that is fair, and that is to pay by the hour. Work 
is wholesome, far more wholesome than leisure, for most 
men. It is educational, and develops human faculties 
far more rapidly than books alone. The time must 
come wlien political economists will understand this. 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 345 

It liappenecl to me once to have a new zinc roof put on 
the house in which I was living. At the close of three 
working days, there was still about two hours' work to 
do to finish the roof, and a storm was approaching. I 
offered extra payment to the men, to induce them to go 
on, as each one of them would have gone on if he had 
been working for himself. N"ot one w^ould stay, — the 
" Union " would not allow it. The storm came, and 
drenched everything in the two upper stories — bed- 
ding, books, carpets, pictures — which it was impossible 
to remove. I worked hard and unavailingly against the 
flood all night. At last the work was done. I paid an 
intelligent expert five dollars to go over it and see that 
nothins: had been neo'lected. He assured me tliat it was 
all right, and I proceeded to refinish the interior. The 
first storm that came after, saturated one ceilino- till a 
part of it fell. I sent an honest hodman up to examine 
again. On the upright of the French roof half-a-dozen 
slates were missing. They still lay on the zinc above, 
with the nails beside them, which should have been 
driven in. My " expert " did not see that ! If I employ 
a plumber to replace a pipe, I have to put on my hood 
and shawl, and stand by until the work is covered in. 
If I do not, a smaller or lighter pipe than that I have 
ordered and shall pay for will certainly go in. While 
these things last I cannot feel much sympathy for the 
laborer ; and all through California I find people com- 
plaining of these and still worse outrages. 

Mr. Fox gave us some fine pampas ; but the principal 
pleasure I derived from my visit to his garden came 
from making acquaintance with a great many seed ves- 
sels that never mature on the Atlantic coast. 

We looked through all the shops for photographs. 



346 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

We could find nothing but stereoscopic views, which 
would not answer my purpose. 

Then we hitched the horse and went to the convent 
of the Sacred Heart. It was after hours, but the sweet- 
tempered woman who was cleaning the lodge went in 
search of a Spanish sister watering the lawn with a 
hose, jjoiir passer le temps, as she herself said, — amus- 
ing herself, " because on Saturdays there was not a cor- 
ner indoors safe from brush and broom." She carried 
us through the pleasant hall, into long grape arbors, 
by shrines with fountains, through a delicious pepper 
grove, which last winter's frost had done much to injure, 
and last into a tempting vegetable garden. When I ex- 
claimed at some ripe tomatoes, the first I had seen in 
California, she called the French gardener and ordered 
him to gather some for me, " bien mur." Charlotte 
laughed because I would not put the dusty things in 
my pocket ; but the Spanish sister approved, and said 
I must have been "bred in a convent." The kindly 
woman at the gate brought a piece of brown paper. 
We parted with pleasant words and a message from the 
sister to " our ladies " in Washington. 

Our last errand was at the newspaper office, for by 
some oversight Mrs. M.'s notice of the expected Sunday 
service had not appeared. Imagine her surprise to find 
in to-day's paper an advertisement like this : — 

" If Mr. M, will call at the Western Union telegraph office, 
he will find a telegram from Monterey." 

That was my missing telegram, which had been 
twice inquired for, and which the operator knew per- 
fectly well where to deliver ! Surely we may put that 
among the " oddities of travel ! " 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 347 

We had intended to drive into General Neigla's 
grounds, but it was too dark. The famous Normal 
School building here was burned down a year ago ; we 
drove round the new one in process of erection, and 
through some of the prettiest streets. Many long 
streets are shaded by Lombardy poplars stiff and tall. 
Except that the exuberance of vegetation is so great, 
and that the houses are all of wood, the upper part of 
Franklin Street in Buffalo is a good sample of the town. 
You must imagine half-a-dozen such streets crossing 
each other at right angles. 

Sa7i Jose, Oct. 17, 1880. — The Sunday paper was 
faithful to its duty. There was an unwonted air of 
Sabbath quiet in the streets as I rode down to Unity 
Hall. I have become so accustomed to military reviews, 
street pageants, and other commotions on Sunday, that 
the quiet seemed strange. It was a pleasant, attentive 
audience, and every seat was full in spite of the late 
notice. If the announcement had come out yesterday, 
I think there would have been more than the hall could 
accommodate. I spoke on " God in the world." 

Almost every one remained after the service to wel- 
come me. A great many persons whom I did not know 
inquired after friends of yours and mine at the East. 
They were all cordially delighted to see each other, and 
glad to have the church open. There had been no ser- 
vice since June, and yet I did not feel as if any one of 
them was prepared to make any great sacrifice for the 
church. Why is it, I w^onder, that in California people 
will pay for everything willingly except a minister ? 

In the midst of the crowd w^as Mrs. V. I have 
spoken to you of her as of a young woman with a 



348 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

family of children, struggling to support herself and 
them by the practice of law in San Francisco. I was 
amazed to find her here, but she said she had heard 
in the city that I was to preach, and came to take her. 
chance. She was almost the first to crowd her way to 
the platform, and then delivered herself in this myste- 
rious way : " I am so glad I came I want to thank you. 
You do not know, and I have not time to tell you, what 
makes this service a very important thing to me. It 
will impress all the remainder of my life." 

A young architect came up to tell me that I had 
started a new train of thought for him, and he was go- 
ing away to follow it out. I hope he did. I went 
home with a lovely bunch of flowers in my hand. I 
smelt lemon verbena in all the gardens. It grows 
twenty feet high here, and perfumes all the air. 

Mr. and Mrs. S. and Mrs. Watkins came home with 
us to lunch. Mrs. S. said the church had held one hun- 
dred and fifty-three sociables lately in as many months. 
What they earn in this way goes, I believe, to the current 
expenses. It is also their way of having a good time, and 
I cannot consider that those who engage in it make any 
sacrifice. She said she had never lived anywhere where 
the women tried to improve themselves, and were as 
active, as in California. I very gladly acknowledge that 
wherever there is a nucleus of New England women in 
California, I have found them exerting themselves in a 
truly remarkable way. I am greatly interested in the 
work which the Chautauqua Society is doing for both 
men and women. The classes for study at home were 
started at the lake meetings by a Mr. Vincent, who has 
written some of the text-books in use. There are many 
subjects open, and the members of the classes, if faithful, 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 349 

study the same lessons at the same hour all over the 
United States. This gives a touch of sentiment to the 
affair, which loses nothing when we remember that 
streams which flow into the Atlantic, as well as the 
great Ohio flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, have tlieir 
source at this fountain head of knowledge. 

One thing I am sure of, and must say, and that is 
that I never was in a country where the law makes 
such victims of women as in California. It is diffi- 
cult to account for it, unless by the exceedingly cor- 
rupt influence exercised by the women at the fij^st. 
I must say this very explicitly, because when- Mrs. 
Stow brought me her book on the Probate Laws of Cal- 
ifornia I would not buy it ; and I told her very plainly 
that I thought her emotions had so confused her state- 
ment that it was practically useless. As I am brought 
face to face with the facts here, I cannot only excuse 
this, but I wonder that any woman keeps her senses 
under the indiijnities which widows are called to endure. 
If the climate made this country a paradise, which it 
does not, these laws would make it a hell to any intelli- 
gent woman. 

The other day, as Charlotte and I were driving home, 
a tradesman stepped up and asked her if she would sign 
a petition to the leading shop-keepers asking them to 
close their places of business on the Sabbath day. " You 
see," he continued, " times are hard; decent people don't 
want to go where the Sundays are so noisy. Eastern 
men who have money don't want to settle. We 've got 
to do it." I am afraid that my argument is not much 
nobler than his. 

Mrs. Watkins was the wife of a man of property. In 
his last years he bought all his property in her name, 



350 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

thinking to make her administration of the estate a 
simple matter. On the contrary, after his death the 
court required her to prove that these purchases were 
made with her own money ! 

This house in which I write was bought with Char- 
lotte's money, — money inherited from her father in 
Portsmouth, N. H. The deeds were made out and the 
purchase registered in her name. The attorney who did 
it never whispered one word by which her husband 
could guess that this would not make the property hers. 
Fortunately her only son w^as bred to the law, and 
when he came home on a visit he told his father the 
deeds were not worth the paper they were written on ! 
As soon as this son can spare time to attend to it, Char- 
lotte is to deed all the property back to her husband, 
and then he is to deed it back to her, with the absurd 
clause added that he does it for "love and affection." 
In other words he is compelled to give a reason for 
leaving his wife in possession of her own property ! 
This done, she will not be required to show ante-conju- 
gal possession. 

I have never known anything so base as the manner 
in which the courts swallow up small properties, if I 
except my experience in the District of Columbia, 
where, in the absence of a will, a woman is the law- 
ful prey of all sorts of sharks. Here the wife has 
half the " community property " if a husband dies 
without a will, but cannot dispose of a dime during 
his life ; while he can give it or will it all away from 
her ! A pretty state of things ! 

San Jose, Oct. 18, 1880. — As I stood dressing in front 
of the window, I think a hundred birds flew out of the 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 351 

great Monterey cyprus in front of it. The tree is about 
thirty-live feet high. 

The S.'s were so kind as to send me their carriage 
and a horse this morning. This last made a team 
with Charlotte's, and as soon as breakfast was over 
we all went to " Alum Rock." This is a small canon 
about six miles from town, in which there are vari- 
ous mineral springs. There are soda, alum, and sul- 
phur waters, and a sprin[>; of sulphur and iron. This 
last makes a black pool called the " Devil's inkstand," 
which smells and tastes like rotten eggs. A large brook, 
wasted to a thread at this moment, runs through the 
canon. The springs are on the very margin of it, on the 
sides of the canon, or dripping from the rock above. In 
one or two instances I thought the water as good as 
Congress water. I was glad to go to this spot, as I 
shall not see the geysers, and it is really interesting to 
find a clear stream close to and yet undefiled by these 
chemical abominations, which, spurting up to the sur- 
face within a few inches of one another, must certainly 
spring from widely separated sources. 

The road rose steadily all the way from San Jose. 
The canon is tufted with live-oak and with poplar 
turned to a golden yellow. Both are garlanded with 
poison ivy, which is now a brilliant scarlet. It looked 
exactly like October at home. This canon has been 
bought as a city reservation, and now serves as a park 
to San Jose. The road to it is planted on both sides 
with trees. 

We found a graceful yonng Spaniard there with his 
gun. He brought down some buck-eyes, a sort of horse 
chestnut, and desired me to wear them for " good luck." 
He had killed a ground sq_uirrel, and showed me the 



352 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

pretty mottled creature with its hollow cheeks. When 
we got down to the little inn where we watered our 
horses he was there before us, and offered us each a 
glass of wine, which we did not accept. I shall long re- 
member this delightful morning. 1 find the sunshine 
here as delicious as at Stockton ; but we always en- 
counter fog and chill before we get home at night. 

Yesterday Mr. M. showed me a gopher he had just 
trapped. It looked like a short, thick, brown rat. Its 
tusks overlapped, and its cheeks were lined with a soft, 
short fur. Mr. M. loses trees by the creature daily, and 
his own traps are of little use unless his neighbors will 
set them also. He digs deep, sets his trap in the ground, 
covers it with a shingle to prevent the earth from falling 
in, and then fills in and smooths the surface. 

We then had some talk about the yellow scale, a mic- 
roscopic turtle with six legs, a beak, and antennse, which 
is destroying plums, pears, and cherries all through this 
valley. Mr. M. has owned this farm four years, and has 
sold his fruit on the trees hitherto. Now this cannot be 
done, for the yellow scale not only sucks the juice but 
23oisons the trees. The inferior fruit is picked and sold 
below the cost of production, as opportunity occurs. Pro- 
fessor Comstock is to come out next summer to investi- 
gate this on the part of the Smithsonian. It would be 
well if Professor Eiley could do it also, for so far the 
scourge is undescribed. I observe that Mr. M. disputes 
such statements as the observers have so far published, 
and I see that it will take more than one season for the 
best entomologist to understand all the conditions. 
The California people are accustomed to think that 
farming here need encounter no obstacles ; but the de- 
struction of orange and nut trees at the south, and of 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 353 

large plum, cherry, and pear orchards at the north, from 
such causes as. this must in time convince them of the 
contrary. 

Here as elsewhere prosperity is to depend on intelli- 
gence and industry. 1 have known tliree successive 
crops of vegetables raised in eastern Massachusetts in 
one season, and that is all that can be done here. Far- 
mers borrow a great deal of money here in California 
who would not dare to do it in the Eastern States ; and 
I rather think those who lend money would be more 
willing, other things being equal, to risk it here. I 
believe the same sum would go as far in New Encr- 
land as in California, especially if employed in the high 
cultivation of ten-acre farms. The rapid and showy 
growth of fields and orchards is not only an encourage- 
ment but a temptation, and fruit-growers seem wholly 
to ignore the deficient flavors. 

Times of trial have certainly begun. As I have gone 
from shop to shop buying inlaid woods, ornaments of 
abalone, and bits of Japanese bronze or lacquer, I liave 
been offered some very rare things at very low prices, the 
dealers saying that they had no hope of selling in these 
bad times, and no expectation that the times would soon 
mend. Now that men are beginning to work instead of 
speculating at the Stock Board, they will have little 
money to spend in needless ways. I think that people 
at the East do not generally understand why it is worth 
while to buy Japanese articles here. The principal 
Japanese dealer in San Francisco is an Englishman, 
who has lived long in Japan and has personal re- 
lations with all the modern factories. Not only so, 
but he understands the value of antiques and where to 
obtain them. Twice a month a steamer goes to Japan 

23 



354 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

from San Francisco, and orders can be sent thither as 
easily, and goods received in return as promptly, as be- 
tween New York and Liverpool. I wish the Japs would 
keep to their old work, — the work for which we especi- 
ally value them; but they are deliberately spoiling their 
own markets by all the shabby tricks of trade they have 
learned from Western nations. At the shop I speak of 
I not only found Professor Marsh, of Yale College, buy- 
ing up old bronze, but some very well known English 
collectors, with whom I had also travelled in Utah. 

After lunch we drove over to Mr. Pierce's place in 
Santa Clara. As Mrs. Hayes and the President were 
driven through it, I suppose it is thought one of the 
finest plantations. Mr. Pierce was an Eastern miner, 
and now raises a great many grapes, which he sells to 
the vintners, but does not himself attempt to crush. 
The house is without pretension. It is surrounded 
by beautiful flowers and fruit, but there is nothing pic- 
turesque or especially attractive in the arrangements. 
There is always something delightful in these vines, 
fuller of leaves than fruit, and the fig trees sending 
their crumpled shadows across the path. 

From the plantation we went to the Jesuit College and 
the old Santa Clara Mission church, which has been so 
deftly enclosed that one has liard work to find it. The 
Jesuits liave screened the old adobe walls with modern 
clap- boards. Within it has been well kept, and prob- 
ably gives a better idea of what these cliapels origin- 
ally looked like than any I have seen. The carvings of 
saints and angels came from older churches in Mexico. 
They were finely enamelled once, and precisely resemble 
those now in the National Museum and brought from 
the far older cathedral in Arizona. It is asserted here 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 355 

that these Mexican carvings were made by Indian pu- 
pils. I should have doubted this entirely but for a cu- 
riously carved wooden tabernacle, painted in wliite and 
gilded, which the Indians here carved for the first altar 
at Santa Clara. It is still preserved, though no longer 
used to enshrine the host. On it was a vine with 
grapes, ears of Indian corn as a symbol of the wafer, 
and all the sacred implements of the crucifixion. On 
this the arrangement of the symbols spoke for itself, for 
although exceedingly well done it was not in the least 
European. The ceiling is very carefully ornamented 
with full-sized figures of some of the saiuts, which are 
really ambitious. The walls are six feet thick. The 
vestments and reliquaries especially belonging to this 
Mission are kept at a small chapel in the mountains 
nearer to some native towns, where a service is held 
every Sunday. 

We were not allowed to go into the college, because a 
recitation was going on ; but we looked at the beautiful 
gardens and playing fountains, enclosed by the college 
buildings, as well as the great cross opposite. It is 
thirty- three feet high, and was planted by the Indians 
a hundred years ago. 

As we drove home we went through the famous 
grounds of General ISTeigla. The moss drips from the 
branches of its live-oaks. The Cyprus bouglis brushed 
my face as we swept through the old avenues. Al- 
though a dreary place to live in, because it is so hid- 
den by the unpruned growth of years, it is most attrac- 
tive. The vineyards are immense, and as they are a 
steady source of income are kept in much better order 
than the house or grounds. The General makes a great 
deal of brandy on the spot. I could not help thinking 



356 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

how lovely the whole place would look in the brignt 
smishine, with a jolly crowd of Italian vintagers. The 
fog, however, had descended upon us before we entered 
the grounds. 

San Jose to San Francisco, Oct. 19, 1880. — At eight 
o'clock this morning Mr. M. drove Edith and myself to 
the cars. It was hot and misty, and he said they must 
be having a norther at San Francisco, which brought all 
the fog down here. After a quiet, uneventful journey 
through a valley studded with live-oak, we got home 
safely. There I found various bewiklering invitations ; 
among others one for* a reception at Professor H.'s in 
Berkeley, w^hich his wife had been deferring until my 
return. They had all taken it into their heads that I 
must certainly come home yesterday. Then the won- 
derful news that Theodore Wynkoop was in town with 
his motlier, to leave in the Japanese steamer at noon on 
his way to the Presbyterian missions in Japan, China, 
and Hindustan, offered me a chance of direct comnmni- 
cation v^^ith my husband, and obliged me to go to the 
Palace Hotel. We went out to Berkeley as before, and 
dined with Professor Stearns. At eight o'clock we went 
up to the H.'s, wliere we were most cordially received, 
and met a large University company. 

I do not consider any private entertainment open to 
remark, but two points struck me this evening which it 
ought not to wound any one if I allude to. Tlie first is 
the surprising fact that all the professors congregated in 
one room and all their wives in the other, and that 
there was no general conversation of interest, as one 
ought to expect at a University gathering. I remember 
that Cambridge parties used to present the same extra- 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 357 

ordinary spectacle when I was a young girl, but we con- 
sidered it a trace of provincial barbarism, and set our- 
selves to correct it. The entirely separate lives led by 
the men and women in California is a most painful 
thing in the society on this coast. I seem to have 
lived for months without any proper social opportuni- 
ties ; and this dissociation, which if not natural to new 
countries is certainly a universal fact throughout the 
AVest, must be broken down before anything like grace- 
ful and cultivated society can arise. 

The other point is the entire absence of fruit from 
our entertainment of ices and cake. There were a few 
grapes, but they served for decoration only. I mention 
this because I certainly never ate so little fruit in any 
two months of my life as in these last two spent in the 
very midst of what ought to be a California harvest. At 
Mr. M.'s, although he was a fruit-grower, there was little 
left ; but I greatly enjoyed and freely ate while there a 
sort of prune, with red flesh, which had half dried upon 
the tree. 

I do not allude to these things captiously or from any 
personal motive, only my physician ordered me here 
that I hiight eat fruit freely, — especially grapes. This 
has not been possible so far as the table of my boarding 
house is concerned, and when I buy it for myself it 
withers in the basket and tempts nothing but the eye. 
Other travellers might need it more than I, and encoun- 
ter a similar disappointment. 

I met at this pleasant gathering a Mr. Gompertz, who 
is instructor in Spanish, wdio has passed a great deal of 
time in Mexico, who knew Maximilian, and who is as 
much excited as I am over the discoveries Dr. Charnay 
may possibly make in Yucatan, I talked over with 



358 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

him the matters relating to the Mission churclies, 
and promised to meet him to-morrow morning at the 
library, when he will give me a catalogue of the lib- 
rary of Senor Don Jose Fernando Eamirez, one of 
the ministers of Maximilian, whose books are now for 
sale in London. No collection has ever offered to 
scholars so large a number of Aztec and other native 
grammars. 

The weather is most exhausting. I cannot find out 
what a norther is, except that it is a hot wind from the 
deserts of Humboldt and Arizona, which scorches the 
plants and burns one side of every tree as if it were 
a devouring flame. Between trade-winds and northers 
this vicinity seems to have a hard time. 

Berkeley University to San Francisco, Oct. 20, 1880. — 
At ten I went to the library. Last evening Mr. Gom- 
pertz told me that some of the Jesuit Fathers alluded to 
the fact, or to what my friend Professor Larkin asserts to 
be the fact, that the Chinese peons in Lima could make 
themselves understood by the Aztecs in the absence of 
interpreters. He talked of the spheres of silver given 
to Cortez, and said that he had traced them as far 
as the grandson of Columbus, and believed them to 
be now at the University of Salamanca. Besides the 
catalogue of the Ramirez library, he brought me a cigar 
case of modern Aztec manufacture, presented to him by 
one of his pupils in the City of Mexico. It represents 
a grape-vine heavily fruited running over a chased sur- 
face. He showed me also a masonic badge made in 
repousse by the same workman. 

I asked him also the meaning of the great cap of 
heavy leather which protects the Spanish stirrup. Lie 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 359 

said it was very necessary to defend the wearer against 
the "cats' claws" which he must encounter in the moun- 
tains, and that most of the peasants wore leather jackets 
for the same reason. I naturally looked perplexed ; and 
then he explained that " cats' claws " were the spines of 
a larofe cactus which work into the flesh. In Peru the 

o 

stirrups are made of orange-wood, which is still more 
impervious. 

He then brought me the great folios of Humboldt 
and Bonpland, and the nine volumes of Lord Kings- 
borough, that I might examine the plates thorouglily 
afresh, and especially that I might see the colored plates 
in Lord Kingsborough's books wliile my mind still re- 
tained a vivid impression of the Mission frescos. N. 
thought I might just as well have waited till I got to 
New York to look at all these, but my determination had 
its reward. The problem of the peculiar colors used in 
these churches is solved at last ; and very simple it is, 
although they do look as if William Morris or Walter 
Crane had presided over the achievement. The Lidians 
painted the roof and carving with their own vegetable 
colors, which they had used for centuries in their public 
buildings before Cortez ever came to the country. The 
colors in Lord Kingsborough's superb book are fac- 
si7iiiles of what I see in the churches here, — dull 
magenta, red, olive, and a dark blue, like the first stain 
of some black inks. What these are any one can easily 
ascertain who has access to a copy of Lord Kingsborough 
with colored plates. I am not sure that I ever saw the 
colored plates before. Only two hundred such copies, 
hand painted, were ever finished. 

Oddly enough looked the wreaths of flowers Avhich 
decorate the walls at Santa Clara in such colors. There 



360 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

is a circle of clierubic heads on that ceiling also which 
seems to link together the figures of several of the 
prophets, — a more ambitious design than I had known 
the Indians to undertake. 

In a representation of a Mexican manuscript at 
Dresden, in Lord Kingsborougli's book, there is shown 
the hanging of a black prisoner. He is a negro, and 
strangely enough holds in his hands a red cross of the 
Christian shape. I could not ascertain its age. 

Mr. Stearns was occupied the first part of the morn- 
ing, so Mr. Gompertz acted as my guide. I do not like 
to say anything about the University, because I have 
been able to give so little time to it. It still seems to 
an Eastern eye in the very infancy of its work. 

The museums must in time become most wonderful 
collections. The close neighborhood of a most remark- 
able fossil and mining region of course contributes re- 
markable specimens of various kinds. It is a very 
j)leasant- thing that two of the fathers-in-law of profes- 
sors employed have given two of the new buildings. 
Mr. Toland erected the medical college ; Mr. Harmon, of 
Oakland, put up the gymnasium ; and Mr. H. D. Bacon, 
in November, 1877, gave a valuable collection of paint- 
ings and sculpture, a library of several thousand vol- 
umes, and twenty-five thousand dollars in money to 
the University, on condition that the State should also 
give twenty-five thousand dollars toward the construc- 
tion of a gallery and library room. Such a library, able 
to hold ninety thousand volumes, and a gallery thirty- 
eight feet wide by ninety feet long, will be ready for 
use at the beginning of 1881. Mr. Lick has provided 
for the erection and equipment of an observatory, wliich 
will be built on Mount Hamilton. Several chairs are 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 361 

filled by graduates of the University, which seems to 
me a very bad plan at this early date. The separate 
sitting-rooms and reading-rooms for the two sexes 
seemed ludicrously insufficient. The Assembly Eoom, in 
which the classes in rhetoric are held, has the portraits 
of benefactors and presidents upon its walls, and also 
the fine folio photographs of the Yosemite. The best 
recitation-room is that in which President Le Conte 
lectures on physical science. In the laboratory they 
were using kerosene stoves under their retorts, and 
seemed greatly in need of many things they do not 
possess. 

There was a great deal of noise in the halls. Order 
and silence in passing up and down are not required. I 
have never encountered that state of things in a college 
intended for both sexes, and I am not pleased with the 
consequences. There is not a State in the Union where 
gentle and courteous restraints should be so mucli in- 
sisted upon as in this, at every opportunity. Neither is 
any order observed in seating pupils in the class-rooms. 
An alphabetical order would mix the two sexes in a 
natural and easy way. The girls were generally hud- 
dled into one corner, with a sort of indecorous con- 
sciousness. I do not know how this is managed in other 
mixed colleges, for nothing ever occurred in my visits to 
them which obliged me to think about it, T do know, 
however, that in most of them eacli pupil keeps one 
seat for the entire term, which could not happen here. 

I went with Mr. Stearns to Professor Eising's chemi- 
cal laboratory, and then to the museum. In the latter 
place I saw a live rattlesnake of a very scarce variety. 
Its imbricated coat was most beautifully colored in a 
way we often see in pictures, but seldom now-a-days in 



362 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

the specimen. The creature kept up a perpetual hiss. 
In the lecture-room a professor was hanging a portable 
and pliable black-board which I had not happened to 
see before. I found in the museum a very fine carving 
from China, which looked so Mexican that I could hardly 
believe it Oriental. Amonc^ the sections of wood I saw 
one of the Yucca palm, which has so odd an effect in 
the Mohave Desert. In talking of the Big Trees and 
comparing the bark of the sequoia with that of the 
redwood, I told Professor Jackson that I felt sure tlie 
age of the sequoia had not been properly estimated. In 
a climate which produces two or three crops a year of 
most vegetables, there is nothing to prevent the forma- 
tion of more than one ring in twelve months ; and I 
wish the age of some recently planted sequoias could be 
tested by cutting down one known to be about twenty 
years old. Professor Jackson thought there was a good 
deal to sustain my view. He said that he had often 
found crowded and obscure rings interposed between the 
well-defined growths. The bark of the redwood is 
darker than that of the sequoia and more compact. 

I saw here many specimens of lava in various stages 
of decomposition. I have never before realized, what I 
must have heard, that the color of black lava changes 
first by the oxidation of the iron in it, and next by its 
being bleached or washed out. Professor Jackson is 
anxious to get specimens of slag. I did not offer him 
my own samples of these beautiful " accidents," but I 
told him what furnaces in Colorado had yielded me the 
finest. Under the microscope I saw some tiny sections 
of granite. In a bubble of air in a cavity in the quartz 
I saw a perfect cube of salt. Professor Hilgard's own cab- 
inet, cousisting of twelve thousand specimens of plants, 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 363 

is open to the use of the students, — an act of great 
generosity on his part. The widow of the late ornitho- 
logist, Grayson, has given a rare work to the Univer- 
sity, consisting of one hundred and sixty-three pictures 
of Mexican birds. These are drawn and painted to the 
life, and there is said to be a duplicate set in the Smith- 
sonian. This collection was made for the Academy of 
Arts and Sciences in Mexico at the instance of Maxi- 
milian, but the contract was rescinded at his death. 

The collections of pottery and Indian implements 
are of course good. So are those of fossils obtained 
from the various surveys. There is a superb collec- 
tion of ores. 

Coming home to lunch, Mr. Stearns showed me some 
eatable pine-seeds, used by the Indians for kidney dis- 
eases with excellent results. They are the size and 
shape of an ordinary olive stone. When cut across, 
they are so full of oil as to seem translucent. They 
are of a pinkish-brown color, and the taste is very sweet, 
with a slight flavor of turpentine. 

After lunch Miss S. and myself went over to the Deaf, 
Dumb, and Blind Asylum. The superintendent, Dr. Wil- 
kinson, stands very high in general esteem ; but it seems 
to me impossible wisely to unite inmates of such different 
needs in one institution. The interests of either class 
would furnish one man with occupation for his whole life. 
The schools are only open in the morning; so all I could 
do was to examine the buildings. Some time since the 
institution was partly destroyed by fire. The new 
buildings not yet finished are of common brick put to- 
gether with white mortar, and, although admirably laid, 
are about as ugly on the exterior as anything I ever saw. 
Within they are nearly perfect. The ventilation is ad- 



364 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

mirable. In the dormitory for growing pnpils, each has 
a bedroom neatly furnished. The partitions do not 
reach to the ceilings, and there is a six-inch ventilating 
tube discharging fresh air in each corner, and four others 
in the centre. The gas is burned in a cavity in the fire- 
proof walls, and shut off from the rooms by a pane of 
glass, so that it really aids ventilation. No drains from 
the wash-basins open into sewers, but their contents 
fall into hoppers, with a current of air crossing them ; 
and the hoppers are trapped. The little children have a 
safe swimming bath in which they can frolic. The older 
ones use separate tubs. There is a fire-escape enclosed 
in a sort of circular tower at the end of each new build- 
ing. There is a gas-burner in every fireplace to aid ven- 
tilation by starting an upward current of air if needed. 
In the kitchen the walls are finished with pure white 
tiles, far above the point at which it is possible to spat- 
ter them. The wood- work is white cedar finely pol- 
ished. The dusty character of the soil and the fact that 
many new buildings are going up made the floors a little 
dusty ; but everything else was spotless. 

Dr. Wilkinson has lately had a little cottage erected 
for himself. It is of redwood well oiled, and the in- 
dented margins of the sheathing are painted vermilion. 
The effect is very pretty. 

We made a call on Mrs. Wilkinson as we came back. 
Her library is panelled with redwood. This is filled 
first with corn-starch which absorbs the natural oil. It 
is then finished with shellac. This method was new 
to me, but it has produced a charming effect. We 
started for San Francisco almost immediately after our 
return, and were too tired to admire the lovely warm 
mist which the norther drove back over the Bay. 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 3G5 

San Francisco, Oct. 21, 1880. — Have been packing 
blankets at the Mission mills. A good California blan- 
ket can be bought at the East, but I wished to carry 
home a few colored ones of a quality no longer made, 
and which have been on hand since 1876. I packed with 
tliem some cheap Japanese toys, but these can be better 
bought at the East. Marsh, the English dealer under 
the Palace Hotel, receives annually a quantity of very 
cheap Japanese toys for Christmas. He says the pat- 
terns are never repeated, which makes me feel as if I 
should like to have a choice of his importations every 
year. I bought of him a little Banko teapot of un- 
glazed stone-ware for twenty-five cents. It is made of 
two lotus leaves, and tamped over a wooden model. 
The lower part is bent up in the shape of a butter-boat 
till it breaks on each side, showing the inner texture of • 
the leaf. The stem is bent round so as to make a firm 
stand, and then carried up to form a handle. Where 
the stem was cut off, the pores of the interior structure 
show plainly. The cover is made of a smaller leaf, the 
stem beins^ bent so as to form a knob. All the veins 
and textures are perfect. It is seldom that the most 
costly article is so satisfactory in an artistic sense. 

San Francisco, Oct. 22, 1880. — Yesterday the papers 
gave the details of a most awful murder. The murde- 
rer is the son of a Second Advent minister in Gorham, 
Maine. He married a young girl from Shrewsbury, 
Mass., about ten years ago. About three years since he 
took a younger sister of his wife as his mistress, although 
she was almost a child. The wife knew this, and al- 
lowed it; at least she made no open complaint. This 
sister the unhappy man has now murdered. His excuse 



366 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

is that he could not otherwise prevent her marriage to 
a scoundrel ! The girl, according to his own story, al- 
lowed him to suffocate her with his hands. If she 
had made any resistance, he could hardly have done it 
in a house filled with lodgers. The murderer gave him- 
self up at once, confessed his crime, and says he is glad 
to give his life to save her from the fate in store for 
her. The case is so extraordinary that I could not help 
telling you of it. I do not give the names ; for it seems 
to me that the three parties to this crime must all have 
been insane, and that we ought to protect all those akin 
to them from the terrible dishonor of it. Cannot Maine 
and Massachusetts take better care of their cliildren than 
this ? How hopeless life seems when we are compelled 
to look into such a maelstrom ! 

I can find no inlaid woods for you. They must be 
bought in the Yosemite Valley, and are very costly there. 
Out on the confines of the town I found a German at 
work in colored marquetry. I shall try to get a speci- 
men of his work, but I would rather have the woods of 
the natural color. His veneers are inconceivably thin. 
After they are cut, paper is pasted on the back to 
strengthen them, and they are then applied to furniture 
or panels. 

If ever you come to this part of the world bring all 
the woollen wear you are likely to want. All such 
things are very dear, and I hardly know how to sup- 
ply myself for my journey home. 



San Francisco, Oct. 23, 1880. — I begin to feel, with 
great disappointment, that I must not wait for my son's 
arrival. The wife of Captain B., his friend and com- 
panion, arrives to-night, and K had gone for flowers 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 367 

to decorate her rooms when I went to a lunch at the 
Palace Hotel. There were six ladies present beside 
myself, and every one of them had a bad cold ! Among 
them was Mrs. Williams, the daughter of James the 
novelist, and the talk was very brilliant at times. The 
drama and Sarah Bernhardt came up for discussion. 
Mrs. Williams lias seen the best actors of this century 
on both continents. One person coolly asserted that it 
was impossible to find a good actress who was not also 
an impure woman ! 

I have been reading the new novel called " A Sailor's 
Sweetheart." I think the author must write exclusively 
for people without imagination. I found the story too 
painful to pursue. 

San Francisco, Oct. 24, 1880. — We wanted to drive 
over the hills after church to-day, as my days are getting 
to be very few ; but it did not seem clear enough, so we 
went up California Street on the cable, and after we had 
gone as far as the steam dummy would take us, beyond 
the cable, we walked over the sand toward the Presidio. 
As we danced up and down over the hills which make 
up California Street, the fog lifted or shut down, and 
the glimpses of the Bay were perfectly delicious. I do 
not wonder that San Francisco people adore their Bay ; 
that is, if they can ever get a chance to see it ! 

We came back a good deal tossed by the wind, and 
went to dine with Miss N. This is my last Sunday in 
San Francisco, and I was glad to spend it with her, as I 
had also spent the first, for her sweet Sunday courtesies 
have added greatly to my pleasure. Her friend, Mr. S., 
had just arrived from Los Angeles, as much puzzled by 
the fibrous stem of the yucca palm as ever I had been. 



3G8 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

Our dinner consisted of tomato soup, shrimp salad, 
roast duck with green peas, Eataiia ice, strawberries, 
and a bunch of flaming tokays that weighed three and 
a half pounds ! The strawberries were most beautiful 
to look at. Each one looked like a rosy peach; but if 
any New England girl had put one into her mouth with 
her eyes shut, I am sure she would never have thought 
of a strawberry. They are sweet and they are sour, 
but they are not fragrant; and they have a disagree- 
able, bitter tang which I never tasted in any other 
fruit East or West. The flaming tokays are beautiful 
to look at, but they are not here a proper table grape. 
One might sheathe a bidarka with the skin of them, 
it is so thick. 

" The Tender Kecollections of Irene M'Gillicuddy " 
was spoken of to-day. The author was connected with 
the London "Times;" and married to a young wife 
whom he idolized. Both became converted to the 
ascetic views of an evangelical brotherhood. They 
were compelled to separate, and gave up their wealth 
to the common purse. They were then sent abroad. on 
beneficent missions. It ended in utter scepticism of 
everything good on the man's part; but the sorest thing 
of all was that they were actually in San Kafael at the 
same time and did not meet. She was a servant in a 
family there, and he went for a day on some brother- 
hood errand. 

Of course I do not know whether this story is true, 
but I could tell as strange a one that is true of our 
friend Sir James E. Is it not inconceivable that men 
should reject the loving kindness of the Almighty 
Father, and submit to these tyrannies called " broth- 
erhoods " in the way they do ? 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 369 

San Francisco, Oct. 25, 1880. — I went down to Mr. 
Horace Davis's office this morning to complete my finan- 
cial arrangements. Whenever I go there I allow myself 
the indulgence of a special growl over the climate. Mr. 
Davis's cashier is a Massachusetts man, and we find 
ourselves privately entirely agreed as to the comparative 
merits of east winds and trades. 

Then I went with N. and Mrs. B. to the end of Geary 
Street to see the interior working of the Geary Street 
cable. Everything in the depot was in beautiful order, 
as it might be in a lady's storeroom. The gentleman in 
charge told us that the whole patent as applied to the 
San Francisco roads has never been used elsewhere, and 
it has only been three years in use here. What a change 
it has made ! The hills, before inaccessible, are now the 
most desirable locations in town. There are cable cars 
in Cincinnati and at Niagara, but these are worked by 
windlasses alone, and there is no stopping after you 
start till you get to the end of the journey. The wind- 
lasses here are moved by steam. The cables are of steel, 
filled and fined by sawdust and tar. Then between the 
rails there is a middle slot, in which the cable runs, and 
the brake of the dummy has an iron " grip," which fast- 
ens on the cable and moves up or down Avith it ; when- 
ever the conductor looses this "grip" the car stops, and 
this is done at each of the cross-streets which terrace 
the hill. Part of this I have told you before. 

The whole afternoon has been spent in turning my 
gold into Treasury notes and going to the Mission Mills 
the third time for my bills of lading. I should like to 
have taken home a pretty bit of gold ore, but I could 
buy it cheaper in New York. 

While I was in Santa Cruz I read a book which as- 
24 



370 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

serted that the San Francisco joss-houses were Budd- 
hist temples. Eecollecting what I had myself seen, this 
seemed incredible, so I decided to ask the question of 
some educated Chinaman. Tlie vice-consul was the 
most accessible person. I was to have gone to him 
this afternoon, but when the hour came, I was so utterly 
weary that Mr. W. offered to go and make the inquiry 
in my stead. The vice-consul, who is a very cultivated 
man, asserted most positively that there is not and 
never has been a single public Buddhist shrine in Cali- 
fornia ; and, in order to convince Mr. W., sent for seve- 
ral of the inferior officers and questioned them in his 
presence. At one time a rich tea merchant came over 
on business, and a small private Buddhist shrine was 
set up in the Globe Hotel for his use. "Very few 
Buddhists ever come to this country," said the vice-con- 
sul, with his nose in the air. In the only interview I 
ever had with this man, I was shocked at the contempt 
he showed for the lower classes of his own countrymen, 
and at the entire absence of any religious faith in him- 
self. All educated Chinese seem to be like him. There 
is something touching in the dependent trustfulness of 
the lower classes, and in their faithfulness to any duties 
assumed. So far as T have been able to observe here, 
I can echo Miss Bird's statement that we have done 
great harm to both Japanese and Chinese by our contact 
with them. They have lost all their own faith, and es- 
teem it a proof of intellect to deny God and immortal- 
ity, because no " people of education " at the West now 
believe in either 1 Whoso shall deceive " one of these 
little ones that believe," it were better for him of a 
truth "that a mill-stone were hung about his neck, and 
that he were cast dnto the depths of the sea." 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 371 

After tea I went to the Chinese quarter and finally to 
the Chinese theatre with Mr. C. There is one thing: 
which must strike every European in the Chinese life 
here, and that is the indifference of this people to obser- 
vation. No curtain ever hangs over a Chinese window; 
and at night, when the lamps are lighted within, it is 
very interesting to stand and look in, if one can per- 
suade oneself that it is not impertinent. I have come 
to the conclusion that it would be foolish to attribute 
such sensitiveness as we feel to any of the Chinese 
whom I have met. We walked about the narrow alleys 
as before, and looked into the barbers' shops. ]\Ien and 
women have their hair put up once a week, and sleep 
on bamboo pillows, which prevent any disarrangement. 
The men ply their trade deftly ; their customers appear 
to go to sleep under their hands. The sleek appearance 
of tlie hair is due to a bandoline, made from what they 
sell in the Chinese shops under the name of "shavings." 
These are probably made of some large soap-wort; they 
are as thin as foreign letter-paper, and look a little like 
slippery elm. It is the best thing I ever saw of the sort, 
for it keeps every hair in place as if it were glued ; but 
as it is quite as stiff as glue, I think the hair must be 
badly broken by it. The fluffiest puffs keep a permanent 
shape, when treated with this. The long queue of the 
men is finished by plaiting into it a knot of coarse sew- 
ing silk, which hangs down like a tassel or fringe. 

Late as it was, tlie markets were full of customers. I 
have observed that Chinese servants always eat all the 
good things they have access to, and by so doing they 
grow more human and attractive-looking. The use of 
many things still eaten by the better classes is only the 
trace left by a diseased or morbid appetite, which great 



372 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

poverty has engendered. Those who think this people 
do not eat filthy things should walk. through the Chinese 
end of Diipont Street at a late hour. A tailor's shop 
which we passed was open, and twenty or thirty men at 
work in it. Mr. C. says these shops are open all night, 
and he thinks the masters employ two gangs of work- 
men ; but it is difficult to understand the need of this. 
Three storeys of the building were lighted. 

The most interesting shops were those of the apothe- 
caries. They are as neat as wax, and it is evident that 
the system of drugs gives way now and then to a system 
of maoic ! Here lizards, toads, newts, and herbs that 
look malicious are dried, pounded, and mixed with great 
care. The prescriptions are pounded and mixed in full 
sight of the customer. Gilded dragons hung on. the 
walls, and I saw a man swallow some powdered gold 
leaf in some liquid. The very same disgusting remedies 
for female diseases are given here that are given to the 
poor whites under the incantations of the A^oodoos in 
West Virginia. The most mysterious remedies appeared 
to fall to the lot of those who wore the Grandest dresses ! 
Mr. C. wanted me to talk with a Chinese woman, who 
is his tenant; so we went into a small house, where the 
smoke was so thick that I did not for a few moments 
perceive that I was in an opium den. Tsui-zan, or 
Susan, as my companion called her, was not at home, 
and the woman who kept watch would not answer a 
question. She looked stupid, and to all inquiries reit- 
erated, " No sabe, no sabe." She reminded me of the 
lower class of negroes at the South, who reiterate 
" dunno " in precisely the same way. Two men who 
were smoking lay on wretched calico-covered couches. 
They seemed too stupid to see ; but one of them, who 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 373 

was on a double couch, moved a little and invited my 
companion to lie down. The stalls in which the couches 
were, occupied more than half the depth of tlie house. 
The space in front was nearly empty. It held a chair 
for the watcher, a wash-stand with water and towels, 
and a few pots of flowers, which must have had a hard 
struggle for life. 

We went across the street to the theatre. Two short 
flights of stairs led us past a police officer and a Chinese 
door-keeper. There was nothing outside to indicate a 
public building. The Chinaman could speak no English, 
and the fees were paid by each person carrying a silver 
half-dollar in his hand. There was no need to ask ques- 
tions or receive change. Just above the door-keeper 
was a cheap colored calico curtain, the two lower cor- 
ners of wliich were pinned back hias. This left a tri- 
angular open space, near the stair, and too low down to 
create a draught, by which the audience went up and 
down noiselessly. There was neither door nor vestibule, 
and no loud word was permitted after one crossed the 
threshold. As soon as I passed this bit of calico I was 
in the theatre. 

Imaoine a larsje, bare auditorium finished in white- 
wash and white paint, with two galleries and a stage. 
There is no scenery, no drop-curtain ; and two ordinary 
doors at the back of the stage serve for entrance and 
exit. There is no interest or decoration to draw the 
eyes from the performers themselves. The pit held 
certainly three hundred persons seated ; and back of it, 
the space usually given up to boxes was crammed by 
people standing, among whom at first I also stood. 
This arrangement, I believe, is precisely that which 
obtained in London in Dr. Johnson's time. 



374 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

Far up on the white-washed wall and over the stage 
was a portrait ; underneath, the words — 

"KoM QuAi Yuen/' 

on a tablet. In connection with the portrait, which 
was, however, only another representation of Kar Quon, 
I thought the inscription might designate a dramatic 
author, or perhaps the name of a play ; but it turned out 
to be the name of the theatre, — " The Gold Cinnamon 
Garden." The theatres are named as ours are ; and 
beside that they take annually the name of the troop 
that opens the performances of the year. 

It is pleasant to think of The Gold Cinnamon Gar- 
den ; what fragrance might not have delighted me could 
I have read it at the first ! On each side of the 
tablet was a gilded scroll about two feet long ; from a 
dragon's mouth in the centre of this came out a lighted 
gas-jet, and these two gave all the light the players 
had, — a few scattered jets here and there in the house 
only serving to make darkness visible. There was no 
such thing as a chandelier. Mottoes, or possibly the 
names of plays, hung against the wall on red, blue, and 
purple paper. At each end of the stage were two very 
elaborate paper lanterns not lighted. They had little 
balconies round about, which were quite full of figures 
of men and animals, beautifully cut and colored ; and 
as the whole lantern was about five feet long, it must 
be quite effective when lighted. There were no carpets 
on the stage. At the back of it, a little fenced off from 
the players by a few rails, half-a-dozen men were play- 
ing on noisy jingling instruments, — forcibly reminding 
the spectator of a child's first efforts on a tin kettle. 
Their dresses were more shabby than those of the com- 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 375 

monest coolie on the street. I could not see that any 
one of them " led the discords ; " and you may write it 
down that in China music means noise, — rhythmic 
perhaps, but not in the least melodious. 

Just in front of the musicians was a chair arrayed in 
crimson and gold, with a mat before it. When we en- 
tered the theatre, an emperor sat in this cliair, — an 
emperor of the Tartar line, — in a costume stiff with 
gold thread and embroidery. On his head-dress ev- 
ery kind of ball and flag seemed to flutter in company 
with two long feathers bent down the back, and about 
four feet in length. Sometliing like the general effect 
of this head-dress may be seen in any insane asylum. 
A woman whose hair was hidden under a close man- 
darin's cap, and who wore for the rest a beautiful bri- 
dal dress of white and gold, was talking earnestly to 
him. The theatre was crammed from floor to ceiling. 
There was not a fly stirring. A Chinese shoe never 
creaks. 

Findin-g that we could not see properly, my com- 
panion put some money into the usher's hand, and he 
then led the way up a rickety stair and behind the 
gallery seats, through a passage so narrow that our 
clothes touched the whitened wall on each side, to a 
stage box with four wooden chairs in it. Here we 
overlooked both staG;-e and auditorium. I midit ^o 
oftener to our own theatres, if I could be as well ac- 
commodated ! 

Every performance begins at two p. M., and does not 
close till after midnight. In the afternoon loose women 
are admitted. In the evening, only those who are 
"kept." Tliere were some lovely children in the wood- 
en pen wdiicli was divided from mine by a red cotton 



376 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

curtain. I stooped over and asked the mother who the 
portly emperor in the big chair was, but she answered 
only by the everlasting " no sabe." Her stiffened hair 
was done up in numberless bows, very much as it was 
once worn by European women. It had been gummed 
till it looked as if every bow was made of steel. 

The most perfect stillness reigned throughout the 
house. The audience evidently came to listen. Last 
week I had heard of a play in which a baby was born on 
the stage, and the midwife, while she dressed the babe in 
Chinese fashion, told the story of the amour which had 
given birth to it. I should have been so excited by the 
whole thing, that I do not think even that would have 
embarrassed me. But to-night the play was much purer 
and far more amusing than a French comedy ; and for 
fear I should forget it, let me add that there was no 
offensive untidiness nor any disagreeable odor, except 
an occasional whiff of opium from the pipes of the 
musicians, who did not seem to be forbidden their 
creature comforts so long as they diligently Gontinued 
to madden us with their discords. 

Of course I had largely to guess at the story, and 
wli^ther I guessed right or wrong my guesses will help 
to the understanding of the stage method. A young 
girl, hating the lover to whom she had been sold or 
married, escaped to the emperor, and kneeling at his 
feet piteously implored his intercession. He gave the 
whole matter over to the courts. He seemed to fall in 
love with the girl at once ; and after he had sent off to 
summon the judges, they knelt down together and 
invoked the favor of Heaven, — and, if I might judge 
from wild motions and dim visions, they invoked some- 
thing very like the Tao-ist powers of evil. At this 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 377 

moment the deserted lover rushed upon the stage. He 
was a prince, and came surrounded by a military guard. 
After violent and most telling gesticulations on his 
part, the stage suddenly filled with characters superbly 
dressed and each wearing a mask. Among them was a 
frog, about five feet high, who turned somersaults, and 
who was killed three or four times over, but who 
always came to life again in the most surprising man- 
ner. It seemed as if the masked characters were on 
the side of the emperor, by the vigor with which the 
prince's guard pursued them. The frog was admirably 
made and inflated, and exactly like the real creature, 
except that he had a long tail in tlie middle of his 
back. Every now and then the prince would catch 
hold of this in a most insulting way, and flap him 
down on the floor with it, where he lay dead and as flat 
as a sheet of paper. Hardly could his enemy turn his 
back before he found some way to regain life and inflate 
his ribs, and began to frisk round, tripping up the heels 
of each warrior at a critical moment with the most en- 
tertaining malice, but only to be reduced to death 
and nothingness again on tlie first opportunity. Of the 
indescribable movement and gayety of this whole scene 
I can give you no idea. 

Then the two parties appeared before the judge, who, if 
I finessed rioht, orave a decision a^^ainst the lover, who 
bowed submission backward as he went out of court. 
No sooner had the court adjourned than the masks re- 
appeared ; the frog whispered something to the lover 
which seemed to drive him crazy, for he tore the sealed 
decision of the judge away from the court messenger, 
and took a seat in the judge's chair, where all in a mo- 
ment he seemed to become the judge himself, and forged 



378 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

another order in his own favor. The court messenger, 
arrested by magic, had been standing all this while 
bereft of liis senses, just as the document was torn from 
his hand. Into its clasp the false judge now delicately 
insinuated his own order, and off went the messenger 
with it. In a moment the stage was filled. The em- 
peror was in his chair ; lie rose eagerly to receive the 
order, looked at it with amazement, and tore it up in a 
frenzy of indignation, scattering the pieces to the four 
winds. At this moment the girl came forward, tore off 
her mandarin's cap and cloak, and made a long oration 
to the lover. It was quite eloquent. She had clearly 
detected his perfidy, and was charging him with it. 

A low murmur of approbation ran through the house, 
and the actors threw themselves on their faces and 
touched their foreheads to the floor in acknowledgment. 
I saw boys creeping noiselessly through the audience 
carrying baskets of figs and grapes on their heads. My 
attention was distracted for the moment, and when I 
turned again to the stage there was a complete melee. 
All parties were engaged in a free fight, and the frog was 
industriously tripping up the performers on both sides. 
I was sorry not to stay to the end, for I should like to 
have seen somebody even with that frog, and it must 
have been " on the cards." 

This play will go on an entire week. The fabrics 
used for the costumes were very superb. The whole 
" get up," however, reminded me of the " Mandans " and 
their sorcerers as Paul Kane and Catlin used to describe 
them. The lances of the soldiers had each a scalp-lock 
attached to them, and the chief maiiician had the true 
medicine-man air. The judge was quite a venerable 
figure, with a white mask and a long white beard. It 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 379 

occurred to me that the frof? mioht be made of silk, 

CD O ' 

sustained by whalebones that suddenly collapsed. The 
whole play was acted with indescribable spirit, so far as 
I saw it. 

San Francisco, Oct. 26, 1880. — I took K and Mrs. 
B. to look at Japanese curios ; went to find the bit of 
marquetry ordered for you, and bought some " Frank- 
lin Squares " to read on the overland journey. I went 
with Mr. W. to look at old bronzes, but found nothing 
good. I meant to go into the Chinese quarter again, 
but the joss-houses were not open this afternoon, nor 
have they been lighted this evening. 

San Francisco, Oct. 27, 1880. — We went out to make 
calls ; and Miss C. told us about the great Chinese 
funeral which passed her house while I was at Santa 
Cruz. There were five or six barouches filled with 
hired mourners, dressed and turbaned with white, wlio 
howled as they went along. The hearse came next, — 
the white horses trapped with black. At least a 
hundred carriages followed ; and from the windows the 
Chinamen threw narrow strips of paper with a well 
gilded circle in the centre. In the old religious services 
money was thrown to the poor, and I faucied that this 
might be a mimetic relic of the old way ; but the ser- 
vants said " it was to buy the man's soul back from the 
devil." "He ver rich," said Tsing, "but much bad. 
They throw to keep off devil. He got him ; been after 
him much years ! " During my absence Netty was 
invited by a friend to go to the house during the fune- 
ral hours. The priest, a benevolent looking old man, 
sat at the head of the coffin with a book. The women, 



380 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

clothed in white, sat howling on the floor. The street 
in front of the house was filled with tables covered 
with food. After the ceremony was over this was taken 
back to the butcher and sold at half price. Under the 
State religion the oblations offered to ancestors were 
finally divided among the poor. Looking at this matter 
on all sides then. I find that this was a Tao-ist service ; 
for any other class of the Chinese the devil does not 
exist. 

Miss M. is really sorry to have me go away. She 
has not told me all she wants to about the undisguised 
vice of the towns. Beside the obscene writing on the 
school fences and the seduction of pupils by teachers, 
she assured me that to her own knowledge there were 
brothels in town ojdcu to boys of twelve ! I should 
think this could hardly have happened before since the 
days of Aristophanes ; but I have heard the same story 
from other quarters. 

I have said as little as possible about the great evils 
incident to adventurous life, which have crystallized 
here. When M. and A. told me that they had left 
California and gone East because they could not bring 
their children up in purity, I felt as if they ought to 
have stayed and compelled purity. But, alas' ! I also 
should have fled from the evil to come. What I can 
scarce bear to hear of I certainly would not have en- 
dured. 

Poor Miss M. is much exercised over the deacons and 
church members who run the houses in Dupont Street, 
and in wondering why the police never think it worth 
while to descend on the Montgomery Street *' hells," 
but must always organize startling expeditions into 
Chinatown. So, to tell the truth, am I. 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 381 

I found to-day at Shreve's a collection of bronze but- 
tons from old sword-hilts that was very fine. 

Sail Francisco, Oct. 28, 1880. — To-day we took the 
long-talked-of drive over the liills. It had been de- 
ferred and deferred in pursuit of a clear day until the 
very last hour had come, and still it was not clear. 
The smoke driven down from the Oregon woods by 
the norther was still hanging over the Bay, and* great 
white wreaths of fog were rolling up from the sea. At 
first we rode over bleak sand-dunes, looking back over 
a still bleaker town. Then we got glimpses of sea and 
rock between black mist and white fog, each partly 
lifted. Then came hills covered with sage-brush and 
lupin, green with last night's showers, — for the rain has 
actually begun, and one wauld think the fog might go. 
In the conservatory at the park we found the blue lotus 
and the magnificent victoria regia in bloom. As we 
came out, a flock of quail darted up at our feet. We 
were late at lunch ; but Mr. C. had checked my trunk, 
and Cousin Henry had sent tickets for the Stock Ex- 
change. 

After lunch I went down to the Chinese theatre on 
an errand with Mr. W. The colors over the stage were 
much more brilliant than at night, and the war of " dis- 
cords" was just beginning. As we came back through 
the quarter I saw that the shops were full of new goods, 
and so were the markets. Betel-nuts with strips of white 
cocoa-nut enclosed in a horn of coca-leaf were exposed 
for sale, and looked very fresh and tempting. Not so 
the half-putrid rats and rabbits, or the dried Chinese 
oysters. The men were sprinkling the stale stock ! 

I have not said much to you about the Chinese ques- 



382 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

tion. I do not know that I have anything to say, for 
you would not believe what I could tell you. You 
would think that I had been deceived, or that being a 
woman I had not known how to approach this subject. 
I have no sympathy whatever with the outcry against 
them as laborers. As fast as they get possession of 
the small manufactures they raise the price of their la- 
bor, until tlie American has no occasion to dread the 
competition. If they work more steadily, skilfully, or 
faithfully, let him go and do likewise. 

If the Chinese will come to this country to live 
above ground, and accept our laws to the extent of 
doing nothing in contravention of them, I do not see 
any possible way of shutting them out. But it is wholly 
impossible to allow them to exist in a quarter of tlieir 
own, fouler than the well remembered Ghetto, and 
subject to no sanitary regulations. It has been said 
that Chinatown has been cleaned out ; but no one will 
pretend that its sewers have been repaired, its under- 
ground caverns filled in, its loathsome invalids taken to 
good hospitals, or its opium dens burned out. Until these 
things are done it cannot be clean ; and this can never be 
done until San Francisco is ready to subject itself en- 
tirely to the legal and sanitary reformer. So long as the, 
men of San Francisco are unwillincj to close their own 
houses of assignation, their gambling dens, and their 
brothels, they have no power, either human or divine, 
to close those of the Chinese. If they will not stop 
drinking on every street-corner, they will hardly under- 
take to drag the opium-eater from his quiet den. So 
far as I can hear, no municipal power has ever inter- 
fered to check the sale of unwholesome food, to empty 
overcrowded houses, to release the victims of the " last 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 383 

chance," to prevent the daily murder of female or mal- 
formed children, to check polygamous intercourse, or to 
bring the murders and assassinations of the " quarter " 
under the cognizance of our own courts. 

There are no Chinese women employed as servants 
among the families in San Francisco. Those that are 
brought over are sold as servants among their own coun- 
try people, — a thing to which our law is surely com- 
petent to put an end. This leads, as soon as they are 
old enough to a life of prostitution. The women are 
strangely like each other. It is difficult to recognize 
them ; and they all look like the old enamelled London 
doll with wooden joints tliat you will remember seeing 
among my old toys, — you are too young ever to have 
played with one yourself. Strange to say, just such 
faces are to be found among ourselves ; and many more 
— even to the oblique eye — are to be seen among the 
Spanish women on this coast. 

As servants I think I could never endure this peo- 
ple. Their noiselessness would be a nightmare to me. 
I should never feel secure from their observation. I 
should never feel confidence in their cleanliness. If 
one could take a very young child and bring it up, the 
inherited habit of obedience and the sense of order 
mio'ht make a srood foundation for trainino-. 

I have seen only one first-class servant in the coun- 
try, although I have seen many equal to the average 
Irish or German servant. The one I speak of was 
Tong, the cook and launder at Mrs. K.'s in Santa Cruz. 
Ora is herself a first-rate housekeeper, — a qualification 
so rare among young Western women as to be worth 
mentioning gratefully. Tong was not only clean, but 
he was observant to a purpose. The Chinese are so 



384 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

quiet that they are not thought to observe, but their 
dexterity as burglars and assassins shows that the 
half-closed lids cover watching eyes. The first day 
I was at Santa Cruz, I declined a fine salad on 
the ground that I could not eat garlic. When his 
mistress put out garlic the next day, Tong would not 
allow it to lie on his dish, — "Lady no eat onion," he 
said. The day I left, it was desirable to give me a 
specially delicate dessert, that I might remember the 
well-kept table where I, who relish so few things, had 
always relished all. Ice-cream was proposed ; but no, — 
"Lady like whip;" and whipped cream it had to be. 
Tong was superstitious ; and when the shadow of death 
hung over the family, he wished to leave. Compelled 
by his father to stay at advanced wages, he was never 
again quite happy. After I went to El Monte I was 
greatly disgusted by the poor cooking of the French 
and Spanish cooks at the hotel. I sent back word to 
Tong that nobody cooked as well as he, and it quite 
cheered him np. 

Horace Davis tells us that in 1878 there were in this 
country one hundred and fifty thousand adult male Chi- 
nese, and that in California they form one third of the 
adult male population ! Nowhere have I found them so 
obvious an evil as in San Francisco. In smaller towns, 
on the sea- shore or the farm, it is more difficult for 
them to keep up their • own ways ; and even a proper 
diet alters the character. The missionaries tell me that 
there are well constituted Christian families in the 
Chinese quarter. I meant to investigate the matter, 
for I find it hard to believe. 

I suppose you know how these people come. There 
are here six emigration companies. Wealthy Hong 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 385 

Kong merchants send their agents into the most des- 
perate and crowded districts, to allure the poorest by 
the promise of high wages. The laborer mortgages hiin- 
self, and perhaps a wile and children, for the repayment 
of his passage money. He is consigned to one of the 
six companies, and that one receives the net proceeds 
of his labor till the debt is paid. This sort of thing has 
occurred in North Carolina since the war, and has been 
widely denounced. Is it any less dangerous on the 
Pacific Coast ? 

It is supposed that there are six thousand Chinese 
women in California. We know what class would, fol- 
low such men. Mr. Davis says their emigration is con- 
ducted by the Hip Yee Tong, — a society strong enough 
to defy our laws. It need not be very strong to do that ! 
I believe there is no law against fornication in the State ; 
if there is, it is defied on every street. The Chinese are 
governed by their own laws, secret tribunals, and police. 
They put offenders to death witliout interference. If 
there had been a proper respect for law ikt se in Califor- 
nia this could never have happened twice. It seems to 
me that whenever the State of California is prepared to 
enforce her own laws, the emigration of the Chinese will 
necessarily cease ; and these laws should be enforced, 
if necessary, by the help of the United States army. 
One third of the adult male population cannot be 
braved by the municipal courts alone. If, as I am told, 
the laws of California are as yet inadequate to the de- 
mand the dilemma makes, then they can be made so. 
California, in my judgment, has the remedy in her own 
hands. When she is in earnest, she will use it. 

I do not know why I wanted to go to the Stock Ex- 
change. It has a sort of historic significance, however, 
25 



38G MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

in connection with the development of the State, as well 
as with the enormous fortunes which now rule its mate- 
rial prosperity. The crowd of hungry gamblers about 
the door attracted my attention ye^erday, and made me 
apply for a ticket. The Exchange is a fine stone build- 
ing. The interior is an amphitheatre with a gallery, 
which cannot be entered without a permit. Above the 
chair are two finely carved bears, and a cartouche hold- 
ing a group of miners. The Goddess of Liberty is just 
over the desk. The floor is divided into two parts ; one 
is for the Stock Board. The seats on this Board are 
still thought to be worth about twenty thousand dollars 
eacli, and a tax is paid annually on this valuation. The 
seats in the rear of these may be hired by reporters or 
speculators. There are telephones everywhere, and also 
a great gong in front of the gallery which strikes at a 
touch of the " caller's " foot. When the Board are in 
session, all bids are sent to the desk, where an officer 
named the " caller " cries them. In open session, such 
as I saw this afternoon, each man " cries " his own bid, 
and the wildest confusion prevails. They were doing it 
when we went in, and picking each other's pockets of 
kerchiefs, cigars, and the like a'fe they crowded up. This 
was called a jest, but it interested me to see that the 
small morals of the place were in keeping with the large 
interests. The rules are very strict. If a man is sus- 
pected of " selling short " they run up the bids, and at 
any cost he must make his sales good. If a man cries 
" taken " he is held to his bargain, or must forfeit his 
chair. The gallery has a beautiful bronze rail, orna- 
mented with alternate bulls and bears. I am sorry I 
have not seen the Board in session, but this little 
glimpse of boyish disorder was better than nothing. 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 387 

On my way home Mr. W. took me to the Safe De- 
posit Company. The basement is very showily fitted 
up. A gigantic warder in gold bronze presides over each 
section. I was a good deal surprised to find that what 
I had supposed to be slabs of wrought stone on the out- 
side of the building were only slabs of cast iron ! It 
has been my last day in San Francisco, and I have been 
"thinking up." 

I once did some shopping in the Bonaparte carriage, 
in Baltimore, and, as I was in very plain traveller's dress, 
was amused to see what a desfree of attention the sold 
lace on the liveries secured from strangers. For the last 
ten years any lady shopping with strange merchants in 
Boston or New York would have cause to consider her 
dress. She could not help discovering that it saved 
some time to dress like a lady who could buy real lace 
and diamonds if she chose ! I have never been any- 
where where this seemed so important as in San Fran- 
cisco. The shopmen are not discriminating. In New 
York my plain English tweed and hand-carved but- 
tons of solid pearl would have secured respectful atten- 
tion. Here the tweed is only a woollen dress, and the 
buttons so much smoked pearl ! 

The new Mint is on Mission Street. I passed it on 
my way to the marquetry factory. The basement is 
built of granite, but the two upper storeys are of a blue- 
gray free-stone, from an island between Vancouver's" 
Island and the West coast. Oddly enough, it is British 
stone. 

I do not know why San Francisco should be any more 
cosmopolitan than New York, but certainly in walking 
the streets one seems to hear every language tut Eng- 
lish. I wish I could give you any idea of the flat and 



388 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

only half articulate sounds made by the Chinese when 
they talk. I can imitate them exactly with my lips, but 
I do not know how to represent them with letters. I 
should have supposed this manner of talking peculiar 
to the uneducated classes, if I had not encountered it at 
the theatre. 

We went to take tea with Dr. Stebbius, and saw the 
two babies, handsome as Greek gods, splashing in their 
evening bath. I am very sorry to say farewell to this 
lovely family, but of the church I know absolutely 
nothing. I have come into no contact with it. 

For the first time in my life, I believe, I am writing 
when I have nothing to say. I think it is because it is 
the last night, and I do not like to go to bed. 

San Francisco to Stockton, Oct. 29, 1880. — This morn- 
ing I saw something like a sunrise. I sat watching a 
golden globe on the horizon for more than an hour, ab- 
sorbed in thought and stupidly expecting it to rise. It 
did not, and I was not surprised at the delay, till the 
glowing clouds broke far above and let the real day-god 
through. Then there were two suns, and I discovered 
that the first was a reflection on the Bay from the rear 
of the clouds, which must have been very close to the 
earth. No one was up, save Mr. C, who kindly went 
witli me to the station, when I had eaten my dreary, 
uncomfortable breakfast. Lovely indeed was the Bay 
when we crossed it. It was not clear of fog, but the 
mist was pellucid with opaline tints, and a light haze 
lifted and settled alternately over all the lovely rocks 
and wooded hills, and at last hid the Golden Gate. 

I started this morning, as you know, for Stockton, be- 
cause San Francisco makes the apex of an isosceles tri- 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 389 

angle, and the line connecting Stockton with Sacra- 
mento is its base, and a tic^^et to the East may be used 
via Stockton, or to Sacramento direct. I should not 
have known this if my cousins had not written to bribe 
me to pass my last night with them, by the promise of 
such a lunch basket as my dear Minnie's hands know 
how to pack. I cannot be thankful enough that this 
arrangement has been carried out, for if we never meet 
again I shall have the lovely memory of these last 
hours, and Minnie's careful provision will make my 
good health on the way a certainty. Food bought at 
the stopping places en route only means starvation and 
failing strength to me. 

We had hardly started before we came upon fields 
where tliey were burning the wheat stubble. A watch- 
man was beating out the fire here and there. The 
smoke was so purple that it reminded me of that which 
has been conflicting for the last few days with the white 
fog in the Bay. A gentleman on the cars said this last 
undoubtedly came from the tule swamps, which they 
are now burning off. This grass is so stout that it will 
burn several feet below the surface of the soil, which its 
ashes greatly enriches. I saw wagon-loads of tule at 
San Jose, and was told that the nursery men use it 
when they pack their trees. 

When I took my " stop over " for Stockton from the 
conductor, he asked me in a mysterious manner for my 
post-office address, and endorsed "Washington, D. C." 
on my ticket. This was a new freak, of which I could 
get no explanation ; but as I had no evil intentions I 
did not allow it to disturb me. " It was the company's 
orders ! " 

All along the road were superb flaunting orange pop- 



390 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

pies, very much deeper in color than any I had seen 
in the summer. They do not wait for rain any more 
than the scarlet primroses at Santa Cruz, but come 
with the autunni. I wonder what . people at the East, 
who think California a perfect paradise, would say 
to the half-dozen remedies for catarrh which were 
liawked through the train ! A good many eucalyptus 
trees, planted in groves, which I was sure I had 
never seen, suggested to me that I must be travelling a 
new road. So at San Leandro I inquired. The after- 
noon train from Oakland to Stockton goes to Lathrop 
by the Southern Pacific on its way to Los Angeles. 
This morning I took what is called the "old road 
to Sacramento," and go through to Stockton without 
change. Very suddenly, I found myself among the 
mountains. Oh, how beautiful they are ! I do not 
wonder at the way Californians love their country, 
while I am among the hills. Just now they have a 
tender surface like olive-green velvet, quilted down here 
and there by valleys, with an occasional oasis of vivid 
green, revealing a hidden spring. We came upon a long 
sluice, carrying water to feed a flour-mill. Beautiful 
creepers and flowering vines were growing under the 
ties, and completely festooning the sluice as far as the 
eye could reach, and economizing dust and moisture in 
a charming way. In the spring, something very like a 
river must flow through these foot-hills. Then came live- 
oak groves, wheat fields to the farthest horizon, brick- 
yards, and at last great vans filled with firewood, each 
dragged by six mules. Out of the hills little streaks of 
white smoke curl here and there, and the shadows fly, 
chanG^incj the charm each moment. At Altamont the 
sheep tracks begin again, and the hill-sides are checked 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 391 

by the tramp of thousands of tiny feet. If a mathema- 
ticiau had done it, the lines would not be more even 
than they seem at this distance. 

It is amusing to see how the half-trained Spanish 
children behave on the train. Two magnificent crea- 
tures, with eyes like a great cow's, and hair hanging 
over their eyes as if they were Norwegian ponies, have 
been playing with the cup and faucet ever since we 
started. Just here a gray-haired man went to the ice 
tank, waited for the children to move, and then deliber- 
ately washed off the marks of dirty fingers from the cup, 
and rinsed it two or three times before he drank. He 
must have been very thirsty to drink at all, under the 
circumstances. The children, neither of them over nine, 
flew to their mother in a rage. Their faces were scarlet, 
and the soft vowels and aspirates fairly sputtered from 
their lips, as they complained of the "insult !" 

When we are passing through a grain country, the 
villages are little more than a post-office, a railroad de- 
pot, and a hotel as clean and as big as a band-box. So 
it seemed at Tracy and at Banta. Wide grain-fields, a 
green and tangled wilderness, and then Stockton came 
into sioht. 

My cousin's carriage was waiting for me, and very 
soon I clasped my dear Minnie in my arms, and the 
four dogs clasped me. I am sorry to say that none of 
the latter are as well bred as Mr, M.'s dog at San Jose. 
When I first sat down in Cliarlotte's parlor, Tiny sprang 
into my lap, apparently to try an experiment. That led 
me to tell the story of the neglected stable-dog here, 
who gave me the whole passion of his outraged heart, 
and seemed to take great pleasure in showing the parlor 
pets that he had a friend. Of course I acknowledged 



392 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

that tlie embraces of this broken-hearted creature, which 
I had not the courage to repel, were extremely incon- 
venient. " Well," said Mr. M., " you need not hold 
Tiny a moment longer than you like. He will never 
get into your lap again if you forbid him." I did not in 
the least believe this, but I put the spaniel down, looked 
at him seriously, and said, " Tiny, go away, and never 
get into my lap again." The pretty creature looked 
at me a moment, then walked away, and during the 
week that I remained made no further attempt to at- 
tract my notice. 

In the evening Mr. Belden, whom I had . met at Cal- 
averas, came to talk over fossils, Indian remains, and 
missions, which may very well seem to you -like related 
subjects ! I drew plans of Mount Carmel, and he 
sketched for me obsidian spear-heads and skin-scrapers, 
blocked or serrated in unusual ways. I am to examine 
and name some plants for him, and he is to send me a 
bit of gold ore and some fragments of lava from the 
Dead Eiver. Just as he was going away, we had a few 
interesting words about the crimson "snow -plant" 
which was presented to Mrs. Hayes at Summit in a 
block of snow. Mr. Belden says this plant grows just 
where the snow melts, but never in it. It is fragile 
like the " Indian pipe," but can be preserved in snow 
for a long while. The specimens shown to General 
Grant and Mrs. Hayes were brought a long distance, 
and were merely set into the block of snow to keep 
them fresh. This, however, the authorities did not 
explain. 

Stockton to Sacramento, Oct 30, 1880. — These are the 
last words I shall write in California, and I dedicate 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 393 

them to my Cousin Minnie. I wish that every careless 
young girl I know could look into this spotless home 
and see this serene, lovely woman, capable of the highest 
converse, of far more than ordinary beauty, of graceful 
and delicate toilette, who is nevertheless a perfect house- 
keeper ; whom I have more than once detected at work 
on the kitchen fire, and who gives the last touches as 
well as the first thought to every dish that comes to her 
table. When I first saw her running down to the gate 
in her snowy dress to welcome the stranger, she made 
me tliink of " The Wife " in the " Sketch Book," which 
I committed to memory with much enthusiasm when I 
was a school-girl. But Irving's picture is a bit of sickly 
sentimentalism beside the actual fact which I have 
found at Stockton. No man living ever did anything 
to deserve such a home as she makes ; and more than 
any other words in our English tongue do those of 
Thomas Carlyle describe her : — 

"I have seen no human intelligence that so genuinely 
pervaded every fibre of the human existence it belonged to. 
From the baking of a loaf or the darning of a stocking up to 
comporting herself in the highest scenes or most intricate 
emergencies, all was insight, veracity, and graceful success. 
Her own fine, modest composure and presence of mind never 
in any greatest other presence forsook her ! " 

These words should not be written if I did not know 
that wliatever discomfort may suffuse her cheeks when 
she reads them will be more than offset by the inspira- 
tion which any mention of sucli a creature must impart 
to every thoughtful young wife. It is my bitterest 
thought in leaving California that I may not only never 
again see her, but most probably never again encounter 
her like. 



394 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

I had a quiet run over fields of stubble to Sacra- 
mento. Into the cars came half-a-dozen Highlanders 
in grand costume, and every one a little "tight," after 
some sort of a Caledonian celebration at Stockton. One 
of them, — a tall, upright fellow, with hair as white as 
snow, — stepped up to me, the only woman in the car, 
and said : " Now, if you 're a Yankee girl, and wanting 
to marry a Scotchman, take care ! You '11 never get a 
divorce ; a Scotchman will stick to you." 

On the opposite seat to mine was an Irishman in 
the same hilarious plight. " Gloria in Excelsis ! " said 
he, jumping up and explaining to the Highlander with 
a confidential nod, " That means ' glory in the highest ; ' 
and if yoit 're a Scotchman, it 's an Irishman / am ; and 
not a fig would I give for the whole of ye." My white- 
haired hero in philibeg, plaid, heron's feather, and cairn- 
gorm, regarded the Irishman with a supreme contempt 
it is impossible to put on paper, and walked into the 
smoking-car. Two or three times afterward he pa- 
raded himself and his dress for our benefit ; and every 
time the Irishman pulled at his mantle, turned him half 
round, and compelled him to shake hands violently. 
The Highlander show^ed the dignified tranquillity with 
which a big dog usually endures the assaults of a little 
one. The matter is worth recording, because in more 
than six months of lonely travel it is the only thing I 
have heard or seen that could possibly give a woman 
annoyance ; although I have been struck ever since I 
passed the Rocky Mountains with the entire absence of 
those thoughtful courtesies which make a woman com- 
fortable at the East. 

The cars are full of lithographed copies of Garfield's 
letter to Morey, several representatives huddling over 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 395 

it, and putting their heads together in the vain hope of 
writing or doing something concerning it before elec- 
tion. The papers are full of accounts of a Chinese 
primary meeting at which there was an attempt to 
move for higher wages, and the arguments were luooden 
stools flung at each other's heads ! The Chinese may be 
pretty safely left to their own devices. Subjected to 
United States law, all the perplexing problems which 
concern them will soon settle themselves. 

The conductors on these trains have no inclination to 
help a lady. They have far more time than the porters, 
but ask one of them to lift a parcel and he says, " I will 
send some one ; " and that is the end of it. 

My dear Minnie gave all this morning, and perhaps 
many others which I do not guess, to fitting me out for 
the next five days. A heavy but delicious provision is 
the result. I hired the boy who brought in the baggage 
checks to carry my basket round to the overland train 
when we reached Sacramento. Fortunately the porter 
of the Silver Palace was off duty; so I found my way 
to my berth, dropped my valises on the floor, and went 
to the office to pay for it. The manager of the office 
at the Oakland Ferry told me most distinctly that I 
could engage and pay for my sleeping car to Council 
Bluffs, liere. This is entirely untrue. I can only pay 
half way, — to Ogden. 

Last night was very cold at Stockton. I sat by 
Minnie's fire contentedly until I came away. Here I 
find the thermometer at 89°, and with the beautiful 
reaches of the river in sight it is hard to remember that 
it is not summer. Sacramento is planted witli poplars 
like San Jose, but by maple, elm, and sycamore as well. 
The city has been twice destroyed by fire and once by 



396 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

flood, but since 1854 has steadily gained in prosperity. 
It is of course one of the railway and steamer centres, 
and has entered somewhat largely into manufactures. 
Its pretty homes are surrounded by semi-tropical gar- 
dens, which stretch away to cultivated farms, or sheep 
and cattle ranches, till all these are lost to sight at the 
base of snow-capped mountains or on the brink of land- 
locked bays. The State House crowns the perfectly 
level city, as that of Boston crowns its triple hills. Tlie 
top of the dome is three hundred feet above the first 
floor, and the front wall is three hundred and twenty 
feet long. It is situated on a third and upper terrace 
of a beautiful park, and is chiefly remarkable in its in- 
terior for the lovely decorations of California woods, 
especially the laurel. I had nearly two hours in the 
town as the train was delayed. 

At Eocklin we found an old negress from Tennes- 
see holding up cockles of grapes, the very best I have 
seen. They were sweet muscats, and as solid as dam- 
sons. She is trying to earn money to get back to 
Tennessee, where she thinks that she has children still. 
Here, too, are the quarries from which are cut the im- 
mense slabs of granite in the pavement of the Palace 
Hotel. The Eound House with twenty-eight stalls is 
built of the same beautiful stone, and here we took an 
extra engine to begin the ascent of the Sierra. 

Newcastle, the great fruit-growing town, has oranges 
gro^^'ing in the open air, and curious boulders in her 
fields that look like great stone beehives. 

I have only six people in my sleeping car, and seem 
likely to make my journey East with a degree of com- 
fort which will be in strong contrast to that of my jour- 
ney out. 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 397 

In this company is Mr. G., late English vice-consul 
at Tokio, and Mr. Basil Hall Chamberlain, who will be 
remembered gratefully by all the readers of Miss Bird's 
" Japan." The latter is a professor in the naval school 
at Tokio. In speaking of Melbourne and the wonderful 
administration of its public offices, Mr. Chamberlain in- 
troduced me to a person who had been there nine years. 
He said that in the revolving dome of the post-office 
building there a man was seated in such a way that as 
it turned he could oversee every clerk perfectly, and 
every man works with the knowledge of this, Mr. 
Chamberlain praised the California fruits, and then ex- 
cused himself by saying that Japanese fruits were so 
poor that whatever was received from California seemed 
delicious. He thought the Japanese would not eat the 
passiflor if they had plenty of plums. The hot and 
rainy seasons coincide in Japan ; therefore all fruit gets 
soaked, and turns out flavorless. 

Mr. Chamberlain showed a warm desire to see the 
United States. He wished he could have started earlier 
so as to see the autumn foliage in its glory. I then 
told him of a white satin Fuk-sa, or royal napkin, to 
be thrown over princely gifts when they were carried 
throuQ^h the street in the time of the Daimio and his 
feudal barons. I had bousrht it in San Francisco. It 
was of white satin, embroidered in gold and colors, and 
covered with autumn leaves. It was said to be two 
hundred years old, and suggested to me that the autumn 
foliage must be very brilliant in Japan. " Yes," said 
my friend, " the Japanese adore autumn leaves. They 
dwarf the very brightest trees they can find, and plant 
them in their door-yards. Their little shrubberies are 
really a blaze of glory." 



398 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

I have fallen on a jewel of a porter. He heats my 
coffee. He keeps my basket in a cool place; and when 
I said to-night, " Plato, do you think it necessary to let 
down that upper berth ?" "Madam," said he, "I don't 
think it necessary to do nothing to inconvenience you !" 
Do you suppose I can be the same person who was 
treated with such persistent and ignominious disrespect 
on my way out ? 

From Reno to the Palisades, Oct. 31, 1880. — Some 
very eccentric travellers from Boston got into the cars 
at Carson in the night. This morning the ladies told 
us they had been to the Consolidated Virginia City 
and California bonanza mines, and described the ex- 
cessive heat in the shafts, two thousand four hundred 
and fifty feet below the surface, where hot springs fill 
the air with steam. The miners work naked and 
only a few hours at a time, receiving immense wages. 
The whole party had taken cold. 

There are so few of us in the car that we liave a de- 
lightfully luxurious time. Our peace seemed very likely 
to be disturbed to-day, but our porter was equal to the 
occasion. At one of the small stations communicating 
with the mining regions, there darted in upon us a most 
unsavory party of Spanish Americans. Father and 
mother, an oldest son about twenty-one, and four chil- 
dren made themselves visible. They were covered with 
dirty diamonds and wound about with conspicuous gold 
cables. They could not speak much English, but ad- 
vanced gesticulating wildly with money in their hands, 
shouting, " For sleep ! How much ? This car not 
full ? " Plato swept down upon them like a thunder- 
cloud, wisely ignoring the inquiry, and with a most 



MY FIRST KOLIDAY. 399 

uncliristian disregard of the porter in the rear. " Back !" 
shouted he ; "room there! VoxtQvl here's fees." I shall 
always wonder why the creature did it. The party 
swept out, leaving the door open. Plato opened the 
windows and went to shut the door, remarking with 
rare perspicacity, " Tears like them people always lived 
in barns ! " 

The English gentlemen and myself sat on the rear 
platform all day to look at the Palisades. The Pali- 
sades are perpendicular rocky walls on the Humboldt 
River, beginning about five hundred and eighty miles 
from San Francisco. My companions said they looked 
like the Scotch crags, but Mr. Chamberlain thought 
them more like craters of extinct volcanoes on the 
Spanish Sierras. They were painted richly with yel- 
low and purple lichens, reflected brightly in the broad 
river rounding through the valley. We saw a long, low 
horizon with the outline of mountains just against the 
sky. Sunlight was over and under them all, and seemed 
to come out of the very heart of one peak of glowing 
amethyst. Five Mile Canon lifted hundreds of pinna- 
cles into the air, all hung with shifting, rosy clouds. 

Mr. Chamberlain says the climate of Japan is very 
exhausting, and that all brain work soon tells on the con- 
stitution there. Both he and the vice-consul are q,o'uyj 
home to recruit. 

Never did I see feathered game so thick as it is all 
along the way, and it is as tame as possible. We trav- 
elled yesterday through thickets of laurel studded with 
vivid crimson berries, and the snort of our engine 
started thousands of quail as we came. I ought to 
have enlarged a little on the Forty Mile Desert, be- 
yond Humboldt, when I came over. Extending from 



400 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

Colorado to the Cascades, it was strewn with the 
dead bodies of men and animals, in the days when 
emigrant wagons made their slow way across the 
continent. There is no water fit to drink the whole 
way ; it is too dry and hot to hurry cattle over, and 
many herds were lost here and many trains bewildered 
in those trying days. About half way over it, emi- 
grants were distracted by a mirage, which was so con- 
stant that it has given its name to a railroad station. 
In this neighborhood, or beyond it, a hot spring bursts 
out at the foot of the mountains, and vast beds of salt 
are found. This salt the bonanza mines ship in large 
quantities. If the traveller be quick to observe, or if 
he stay long enough to discover the true character of 
these plains of death, he will be tempted to forgive the 
railway a great many sins. The levels are strewn with 
black basaltic masses, as if Pluto had bombarded the 
plain in person. 

Salt Lake, omoard, Nov. 1, 1880. — I rise very early 
to take advantage of the almost daily pause for freight 
trains to pass at six in the morning. In this way I get 
a complete bath comfortably before any one else stirs. 
Plato winks at my endeavor, and the dressing-room is 
always clean and ready. Then I take a hot cup of 
Minnie's mocha and go out into the sunrise, which 
was to-day most lovely. We were coming in sight 
of Salt Lake, and Antelope Island rose like one' fair 
mass of opal from a translucent field. I cannot tell you 
what it costs me to give up my second visit to this 
valley. If I positively knew what is most probable, 
— namely, that I shall never look on the Wasatch 
again ; that I shall never go up the canon of the 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 401 

American Fork, — I think I should break down and 
weep. 

" When over dizzy heights we go, 
One soft hand bUnds our eyes ; 
The other leads us safe and slow, — 
Love of God, most wise 1 " 

and blessed forever be that soft hand ! 

This is the canon that made such an impression on 
Charles Kingsley. He preferred it to the Yosemite. 
From the point where the Utah Southern leaves you, 
you take a narrow-gauge railway sixteen miles nearer 
heaven. Tliese cars only move up this sixteen miles at 
the rate of six miles an hour ; for there is a steady grade 
of two hundred feet, and at one point it increases to 
two hundred and ninety-six. The valley is about one 
liundred feet wide, a brook falling from rock to rock all 
the way. The walls of dark-red and brown granite are 
wonderfully contorted, as if they had been fused upon 
the spot. At one point a hole through a crag shows a 
luminous circle of blue heaven. They call it " The 
Devil's Eye," with some inward consciousness I suppose 
that this is what they ought to encounter; but it is the 
eye of God himself for an instant made visible to loving 
hearts. Toward the end of the canon is the old mill, 
— a ruin amid dense trees and rippling water, green 
bushes and iDold rocks. This is the steepest railroad 
grade in the world ; and when you start to go back the 
engine is detached, and like a live creature, without a 
signal, the little train starts on its return, which it lias 
several times accomplished in forty minutes. But, alas ! 
I lingered too long by the Pacific. The snow has al- 
ready fallen in the mountains, and the wise people tell 
us that this is to be a winter of terrible severity. 



402 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

Just here the Wasatch range is magnificent, the finest 
I have seen in my wliole journey. It rises clear cut and 
intensely blue. 

With great regret I parted from our English com- 
panions, who are on their way to Salt Lake City. Be- 
fore they went they introduced a young Japanese, the 
educated ao'ent in New York of the Tokio Manufactur- 

o 

ing Company. I had in my bag a beautiful little bronze 
button an inch long. It represents a blade of grass, with 
its flower stalk, a swaying spray of golden bloom, a 
cricket climbing the blade, and two silver daisies peeping 
out beneath. It is very old, and I hoped Shugio would 
know something about it, but he did not. 

When later I went to the rear to look at Weber 
Canon, I found two Englishmen, who had got on at Salt 
Lake, in full possession of my camp-stools and territory. 
Of these the first was a wealthy, retired army man, 
travellinix with his servant ; the second, a Mr. C. from 
West Broomwich, who has just been round Cape Horn 
on a voyage of recovery from a severe accident, in a 
colliery of which he was superintendent. 

Do you remember how you remonstrated because I 
would take this journey in the summer ? I cannot tell 
you how glad I am that I came just when I did, for these 
canons seem cold and dreary now. How well I remember 
their delicate beauty three months ago ! Now yellow^ li- 
chens embroider the gray and barren rock, scarlet vines 
creep along the crevices, and purple and yellow broom 
weaves mist-like along the valley. Now that the soft 
green of the deciduous foliage has fallen away, a deli- 
cate fringe of pine trees shows itself against the sky at 
the top of the ravine. Peak over peak the wave-swept 
summits are lifted In Echo Caiion the red needle-like 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 403 

rocks rise against the blue in such bleak contrast, that it 
seems as if I had never seen them before. All along the 
way a crust of ice crackles, and streaks of snow fleck 
the nearer summits. 

My Englishmen talked of early marriages. E. M. 
said that the expensive club-life of England discour- 
aged them, by accustoming young men of moderate 
means to a life* of extreme luxury. You know how 
often I have said the same thing of our clubs. If we 
could begin again to be hospitable, not to the indiscrim- 
inate travelling public, but to our near friends, as our 
grandmothers were, nobody would want a club. 

Castle Kock reminded E. M. of the abbey at Glaston- 
bury, which he described. He said the legend told how 
Joseph of Arimathea had wandered weary to Glaston- 
bury, and planted there his staff of thorn. It is still 
there, and blooms at Christmas in perpetual miraculous 
attestation ! 

The clouds are heavy. There is plenty of snow some- 
where, and curious chimney-pot rocks project over the 
ravine. I took care of a sleeping baby through the trav- 
ellers' dinner hour, and let the tired mother get a mouth- 
ful of fresh air. Power to help in such ways is one of 
the blessings shut into my dear Minnie's basket. 

A miner from the Bell Mine in Montana showed me 
some charming specimens. He gave me some big gar- 
nets and smoky quartz. He is carrying to New York 
the most beautiful piece of copper and silver ore that I 
ever saw ; it is part of a layer about four inches thick, 
perfectly homogeneous, and sparkling with the deepest 
amethystine hue. Both the upper and under surface of 
this layer is thickly frosted with pure silver. Out of its 
purple bed yellow pyrites rise like blossoms of gold. 



404 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

I have a very kind porter on this train also. Plato 
took pains to speak to him in my behalf at Ogclen ; 
but he lives in perpetual fear of the railway inspector. 
The Union Pacific will not allow its porters to keep so 
much as a tin dipper for the convenience of a sick or 
dying passenger, and spies come in at every important 
station. I suppose I ought to write the "Pullman Co." 
instead of the " Union Pacific." Quick confusion to 
them and their unrighteous gains ! 

We are in a fine car, carefully kept; but then there 
are only four of us, — refined people who do not scatter 
our leavings, so that Jack has an easy time. I am the 
only lady, and have the dressing-room entirely to my- 
self. But for Minnie's basket I should fare badly. Jack 
has no dipper to heat water in, and I driuk my coffee 
cold. 

Nov. 2, 1880. — En route. At sunrise one of the 
mountain peaks — Elko, I think — showed itself mirage 
fashion, lifted high into the air on a sea of mist. Al- 
kali covered the plains as thickly as two inches of snow 
would have done. Thin streaks of snow continue visi- 
ble on the distant ranges. They are probably five hun- 
dred or six hundred feet wide, but look to us as if laid 
on by a paint brush. . Elko, one of the most beautiful 
cloud-mountains in the world, has a snowy cloud night- 
cap all ready to drop over its head. 

Just as all seemed going at its best, our pace slack- 
ened till the cars fairly crept. Before night-fall we 
were three hours behind time, and excessively tired 
of one another. The cause of it all was a freight 
train lately wrecked. We skated round it as we 
could on temporary rails, and then waited for a dozen 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 405 

delayed freiglit trains to get off the side track. A 
wreck is like the Day of Judgment, — it reveals the 
inmost heart of things. Such a mess ! Fruit jars 
for the canning factories on the Pacific Coast, lamp 
chimneys for the miners, mirrors, flour barrels, tin 
sheathing, car wheels, and in the midst the fire set by 
the overturned engine still spreading and smouldering in 
our track. We have begun to pass through snow-sheds. 
Medicine Bow Range rose against a pale, cold, blue sky, 
mottled with white and silver. The Elko was superb, 
showing ravines filled with snow during the last twenty- 
four hours, and oHttering^ in the sunlight. Words are 
useless to whoever has not seen such a sight ; but the 
weakest words will plunge whoever has seen it into 
a trance of delight. Gray, castellated clouds mocked 
the mountains, and rose against a black sky to the east. 
To the northwest a whole continent seemed to stretch ; 
meadows fleeced with snow receded, breathing light ; and 
beyond an icy shore islands of the blest floated in a blue 
sea. 

E. M. has talked a great deal to-day of his travels in 
Europe. He has received from repeated visits such an 
impression of the unhealthfulness of Rome that he 
would neither go there himself nor allow his family to 
do so. In Naples it has been necessary to build hotels 
on the ridge far out of town. Monaco is an earthly 
paradise ; but no one who will not gamble is allowed to 
remain in it : he himself had been ordered out of the 
town ! 

At night-fall a single silver star shone on an amber 
sky between deep purple bars. We breakfasted at 
twelve, having been delayed four hours. There was 
much dissatisfaction among the passengers, who thought, 



406 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

rationally enough, that we ought not to have waited 
for the regular breakfast-station. We were at a full 
pause for more than an hour on account of the freight. 
Of course, my basket stood between me and discon- 
tent ; but why could not those freight trains have 
waited for ours ? 

Nov. 3, 1880. — En route. N"o time was gained last 
night. 1 think I should have been less weary if I had 
walked the distance than by the slow crawl of the rail- 
way coach. This morning I saw several travellers read- 
ing "The Light of Asia !" Cattle were all round us ; but 
it is now too cold for the sociable little prairie dogs, or 
their downy guests the " Turveydrop " owls. One may 
even hope that the rattlesnake is coiled up peacefully 
for tlie winter. We passed several hundred sheep mar- 
shalled by a drover on horseback. He had the high 
Spanish saddle and stirrups, and was waiting by the 
track for his freight cars to come. On one side of us 
we saw the stubble, and on the other the green spring- 
ing blades of winter wheat. Planted trees began to 
break the monotony. 

At Cheyenne, at noon, we heard that Garfield was 
elected, and that New Jersey and Connecticut had gone 
Eepublican ! For these two States we proposed an hon- 
orary torch-light procession. How^ I rejoice over this I 
cannot say. Certain I am that any other result would 
have plunged us, practically speaking, into a civil war, 
although it is not likely that the struggle could have 
continued long. The Southern members of the last 
Congress may thank their own folly for the fact of this 
overwhelming vote. Besides this, Garfield's election is 
due to the strengtli of the Hayes Cabinet, — a strength 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 407 

which has never been equalled since the first hours of 
the Eepublic ; to the dignity and delicacy of President 
Hayes ; to the loving matronly presence in the AVhite 
House ; and last, but not least, to the steady sale of " The 
Fool's Errand." Perhaps you will not recognize all the 
factors I name : but I am sure that Judtre Touraee ou"ht 
to be the happiest man in the United States. 

It will be remembered how easily at Council Bluffs 
my baggage was to be rechecked in the cars ! As we 
arrived, worn out, too late for our various Eastern 
trains, I had not even tliis small comfort. The man 
who came with the checks had forgotten those of the 
" Canada Southern ;" and although, in consequence of 
the delay, my ticket would have been good on any road 
that I chose to follow, my baggage was allowed no such 
advantage, — a distinction without a difference, as I 
thought. I retained my porter by an extra fee, for it 
was eleven at night when we arrived. He went with 
nie to the baggage room, and I checked the baggage 
myself; and we then went to the Telegraph office 
where I telegraphed to Quincy, Illinois. I wished to 
telegraph the hour of my arrival, but the railroad agent 
at this most important railway station in the whole 
world knew nothing about through trains ; and, although 
he was not in the least busy, he coolly refused to look 
this up. " I could not go till morning any w^ay, and I 
must wait !" 

Council Bluffs to Burlmgton, Iovm, Nov. 4, 1880. — I 
was obliged to pass the night at tlie Eailway Hotel, a 
much poorer establishment than would dare to exist if 
this were still the day of stage coaches. A room fifteen 
feet by eight and about twenty feet high received me. 



408 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

One window, of a single narrow pane, ran up to the 
ceiling and lighted this charming bower. It was un- 
curtained, and I pinned up Mr. Chamberlain's parting 
present — my English wrap — as a screen, and pro- 
ceeded to repack my hand baggage. Here I had to part 
with Minnie's still precious basket. After we left the 
Central Pacific it went into various unsavory places, 
and received rather rough treatment at the hands of 
the porter. I gave it to a cheery chambermaid, who 
assisted me to supply the deficiency of a quart ewer 
and a towel as large as a pocket kerchief. All through 
the West the toilet towels appear to cost about ten cents 
apiece ! This girl prejudiced me at first by coming 
to wait on me with a newspaper in her hand. When 
will servants learn that in order to prepossess they 
must answer a call with no interest apparent except 
in the needed service ! I sympathized in the girl's 
ardent desire "to know about the elections;" but why 
not know this also ? 

I took out of the basket some dried fruit and a little 
pot of spiced and pickled figs, which T am bringing to 
you. My chicken jelly, my delicious Westphalia ham, 
my fresh bread and butter, and my superb coffee were 
alread}^ at an end. My bureau drawers were full of the 
debris of the last traveller's bag. This I emptied into 
the hall opposite my door. There was no bell. They 
are calsomining the entire house ; the halls are full of 
litter, and the carpets are everywhere trodden with 
lime and color. I could find no public parlor, and 
never should have got my hand baggage to my chamber 
if it had not been for the kindness of my new Japanese 
friend. After I went to bed there was a grand torch- 
light procession at Omaha in honor of Garfield. I 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 409 

should have liked to hear the speaking, but it rained 
far too heavily for me to cross the river. This morning 
the man who sells tickets over the Burlington and 
Quincy road assured me in the most unprincipled way 
that the 8.40 train would take me through without a 
stop ! To complete the illusion he checked my baggage 
through to Quincy. Then I bought some Eastern -pa- 
pers, got into the car, and proceeded to have a " good 
time !" 

In a speech at Mentor, Garfield bears fit testimony 
to the great and good influence exercised by Oberlin in 
the politics of this country. It is the first time so em- 
inent a man has done his whole duty in this respect. 
Whenever Western men come to the front, the fact 
must be more and more recognized. I have read " Figs 
and Thistles" with great delight. The president of the 
college, in this book, who takes the church-service out 
of the liands of the pastor when the war breaks out, is- 
Finney of Oberlin. Never shall I forget the prayers 
he made, as I knelt beside him in his parlor, when all 
our hearts were sore because of Andrew Johnson. Fin- 
ney impeached him, item by item, before the Great 
White Throne he believed in, and then he went on 
in a burst of impatience, — '' But why should we tell 
these things unto Thee, O Lord ? Thou knowest them 
better than we can ; and Thou "knowest also how to 
bring out of his ignorance and contumacy far better 
and nobler thiuGfS than would be the natural fruit oi 
man's wisdom and obedience !" It was as if he chal- 
lenged the Almighty, or would put him on his mettle ! 

All along our way grass, alder, and willow are start- 
ing into leaf, as if the first days of spring liad come. 
The cars have been very uncomfortable. There was no 



410 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

Pullman. Hot stoves on one side and cold draughts on 
the other. Near me was a stout German, who dandled 
a little girl of two years and a boy who was not four 
ujDon his knee. The girl amused herself by repeatedly 
pulling her futher's watch from his pocket with a merry 
jerk. The l)oy held two bits of paper. They looked 
like railway passes, and he asked continually, " Papa, 
what is the letter on my paper ? What does it say, 
papa ? " At last the father spoke : " It says, Howard is 
to go to the junction, and there they will throw him 
out." It was pretty to see the look of undoubting 
love and trust which the boy lifted to his father. 
"What for?" he asked briglitly, with no sign of a 
shadow on his fair brow. "Aren't you a Garfielder ? " 
said the father with a terrific frown. "Yes, I are a 
Garfielder!" shouted the boy gaily. "Mamma said I 
was to be a Garfielder, and I are I " " And what did / 
tell you ?" 23ursued the fatlier. The boy paused, and at 
last shook his head. " You don't remember what / 
say !" said the man ; but at that moment we reached 
the junction, and the whole party were " thrown out." 

Eain, rain, and wide fields followed. 

Toward nightfall two boys came into the car. They 
were between nineteen and twenty-one, both drunk, dir- 
ty, and profane. I think you know what my feeling is 
about profane or obscene language. I have a constitu- 
tional horror of both, and could commit a crime, I 
think, without losing as much self-respect as I should 
do if either crossed my lips. Yet I am often compelled 
to acknowledge in these far lands that the use of oaths 
is a mere habit, showing tlie want of education and 
the entire absence of natural refinement, but proving 
nothing worse. The older of these two boys was help- 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 411 

ing the other off to some mining country. He warmed 
his feet, tucked him into the seat, and then resumed 
some conversation which their entrance had interrupted, 
in tones husky with drink : — 

" Damn my soul, Jem, you 're doing the right thing, 
and I '11 tell you why. Before ever I saw you, there 
was a man came here with a wife and four children. 
By Jesus ! that feller never made twenty-five cents a 
clay ! Warn't that rough on a married man ? And I do 
hope your girl 's a good one, — that's all, Jem. Well, 
this feller came to me, and I said, ' I 've got just one 
dollar and twenty-five cents in this world, and I '11 give 
you the dollar;' and I did. 'By God 1' says he, 'won't 
the old girl laugh when she sees that ?' And he went 
away. I took the twenty-five cents, and drank brandy 
till I could n't think. You would n't suppose I could 
carry three pints, would you, Jem ? but I did." 

Spitting, swearing, chewing, he rattled on till the 
bell rang and he huddled off the train, almost too late. 
The object of his interest was too far gone to answer. 
A very little care in early youth would have changed 
that fellow's whole history. 

On this train, all the conveniences of travel have 
proved positive nuisances. I soon learned that it never 
connects with the Quincy road. 

Burlington to Quincy, Nov. 5, 1880. — At 10.30 last 
night we ran into Burlington, a town of thirty thousand 
inhabitants now. As it was raining and I had no rub- 
bers, having wholly forgotten in these last three months 
that it ever did rain anywliere, I went to the only hotel 
which sent down an omnibus. It was the B., and the 
floor of the vehicle was as deep in dirt as the street. 



412 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

It is many years since I have seen so untidy a room 
as that into which the clerk ushered me after I had 
drunk a cup of sour milk ! I had dined on a few wal- 
nuts ! A patli had been swept — perhaps by the skirts of 
some hapless inmate — from the bedside to the door ; 
but no broom had ever gone under the bed since the 
carpet was put down. I could get no additional water 
or towels, and it was difficult to conjecture when the 
tumbler was last washed. The rest may be guessed! 
The "premeditated poverty" of many darns diversified 
the bed linen ; but that constituted a real claim to my 
respect. I am glad to have the opportunity to say that 
I have not seen an untidy heel since I left home ; and 
tliat indicates a great change east as well 2i^ west of the 
Mississippi in the last twenty years. 

I had a good night's sleep. For breakfast this morn- 
ing I got some liot milk (I am quite sure it would not have 
been safe to boil it), two small bits of tongue, and two 
pasty buckwheat cakes, — price seventy-five cents ! 

In spite of the landlord's assertion that the trains 
never left tlie depot till forty minutes after the adver- 
tised hour, I went to the station on time. After my ex- 
perience of yesterday I do not feel like trusting any- 
body ; but the landlord was right. At the last moment 
my valise gave way, but I bargained successfully with 
the news-boy for a piece of rope. The thing cost ninety- 
nine cents when I started, and has travelled nearly six 
thousand miles ; so peace be to its remains, which I 
shall inter at Quincy. 

Burlington stands in a lovely situation. From its tall 
bluff it looks down into the fdowins^ bosom of the river. 
In the meadows everything is starting as if it were early 
spring. I find a great change in the faces of the people 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 413 

in the car, when I compare them with those west of 
Omalia. They show a New England descent, and are 
of a strong and manly type, in marked contrast to the 
worn out, anxious countenances in the minino- and oil 
regions. Whenever the basis of a man's life is expecta- 
tion rather than labor, he shares the lot of Tantalus, and 
shows it on his forehead. 

At Dallas I got another lovely river view. The win- 
ter wheat is starting, and from one cottage window the 
Stars and Stripes were waving for Garfield. The or- 
chards here are planted as I like to see them, with a 
row of trees outside the fence. Wheat ! wheat ! but it 
does not burst all warehouse bonds, as it did in Cal- 
ifornia. The towns have Massachusetts names. We 
were on the Illinois side of the river. All the men 
on the car were reading the local papers. The " Hawk- 
eye " is headed with the "Elephant of 1884," — crushing 
its Eepublican way across the continent. I wish we 
could get an extension of the presidential term before 
that election. Of the four years to which our President 
is elected, one at least is generally wasted in getting 
new men into place, and filibustering with enemies. If 
the term were eight years instead of four, this unsettled 
state of things would occupy no more time, and the 
country would gain in peace and quietness. Politicians 
wear the anxious look and heart of all gamblers. 

Very unintentionally, I read the heading of a news- 
paper column over the shoulder of my forward neighbor : 
" A better feeling to be derived from local news than 
from election returns." The stupid editor did not guess 
that local prosperity grows or dwindles in sympathy 
with the election returns ! 

Beautiful horses were at the dep6t in Mendon. It is 



414 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

like a lovely New England town. The clothes hanging 
on the lines gave me real pleasure. Not since I crossed 
the mountains on my way out have I seen any that were 
really washed ! 

J. V. B. met me at Quincy. He goes to Chicago to- 
morrow night, and wants me to fill his place here. I 
am too tired ; I would rather go to Chicago with him ; 
so he will telegraph to all available points. There 
were twelve letters on the study table. The despair 
with which I looked at them suggested that I had not 
gained much beside endless pleasure from my long 
journey. 

Quincy, III, Nov. 6, 1880. — We drove about the town 
this morning. It has not changed much since 1866. It 
has a fine stone court-house, but in its undrained lower 
storey, among foul odors, where gas must always burn, 
it imprisons all culprits awaiting trial. Of what use 
is all our boasted knowledi^e if such thingjs must 
be ? Graham Bell's new spectrophone reveals the ex- 
istence of invisible spectral bands which speak in music 
with the voice of licjht. Darkness visible or invisible 
responds in discord dire, and discord in a human life 
means sin. 

A new Presbyterian church has arisen on the ashes 
of the one burned just when it was completed. The 
upper end of Main Street looks as State Street used to 
look in Newbury port, and presupposes a good deal of 
wealth. AVe drove to Sunset Bluff. The beautiful 
river, the gay trees, their loose leaves fluttering down, 
the bay with its ice sheds, and green wheat-fields be- 
yond a barred gate made a lovely picture. V. has gone ; 
we hoped for telegrams to the very last, but no helpful 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 415 

one came. I have been receiving kindness ever since 
last May, and have had very few opportunities to do 
anything for others ; so I must not grumble. 

Quincy, Nov, 7, 1880. — The Sunday-school and church 
are in excellent condition, and their minister is respect- 
ed as he should be. My own audience was not more 
than half as large as it was in 1866, owing perhaps to 
the fact that the service was not advertised ; but I also 
think the parish has grown smaller. I held but one 
service, which many people were kind enough to regret. 
It was very pleasant to find persons here who could 
recall my visit in 1866, and several who remembered 
with pleasure Mr. Dall's visit in 1841, — thirty-nine 
years ago ! 

Quincy to Chicago, Nov. 8, 1880. — This night I 
started in reality for home. I had a delightful Pull- 
man, so well lighted that I occupied myself until a late 
hour in reading up my newspaper and magazine mail. 
I was a good deal entertained by two tradesmen who 
sat near and talked to each other for hours about the 
various ways in which they hid their political view^s 
from their customers ! The worst point of the whole 
was that they were not in the least aware of anything 
degrading in the story, but rehearsed it in the best of 
spirits. 

Chicago, Nov. 9, 1880. — Never did I see so glorious 
a sunrise as that which greeted me when I drew the 
curtain. A seraph's wing thickly feathered in dark 
gray stretched from the horizon to the zenith. Soon 
every feather was touched with crimson. This faded. 



416 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

and the shoulder and extreme tip glowed with flame. 
Then bars of gold crossed the plumes, and at last the 
whole thing contracted and floated, devoured of efful- 
gent light. 

V. met me the moment the cars stopped, swept me 
into a carriage and carried me away to breakfast. We 
had a good talk, and I supplied myself with reading. 

The cars ran out of Chicago along a boulevard. Then 
came the rear of the pretty houses on Prairie Avenue, 
and a noble view of the Lake. Then a low stone wall, a 
little park, and a Lincoln monument. A queer group 
of wooden houses, painted yellow and standing high on 
wooden piles which were painted stone-color, had a very 
odd effect. High steps led up to them. Then new pub- 
lic buildings, flower-beds, and garden walks just laid out, 
and long stretches of meadow shaded with oak. At 
Michigan City there were pretty hills and blue laughing 
water. The farms slope to the south and look over the 
golden sunset. In order to meet my train I got off at 
the junction outside Detroit. The conductor gave a 
boy my bags, and told him to show me the way to the 
Canada Southern. No sooner was the little wretch out 
of the conductor's sight than he dropped my bags, and 
telling me the depot was a block off round the corner, 
he disappeared. I was left in scriptural " outer dark- 
ness," but did not make it worse by gnashing my teeth ! 
I inquired again of the brakeman, and made my way 
over the rubbish, cutting up a good pair of boots. I 
bought my ticket over this Canada Southern to look at 
the changes effected in twenty-five years, — knowing 
very well it was the least convenient route. Of course, 
therefore, I did not originally intend to go over it in the 
dark! 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 417 

Buffalo, Nov. 10, 1880. —I slept soundly till 430, 
shared a cab with three sportsmen and as many guns, 
and in a short fifteen minutes felt the arms of those I 
love best in the world about me. 

COXCLUSION. 

Boston, Sept. 1, 1881. — When a year ago I stood 
in the streets of Santa Barbara, thrilling with horror 
at the thouo'ht that a mad qreed for office should cut 
down a true and useful man who had gone thither to 
do what he could to insure the election of James A. 
Garfield, I felt as if I were in the midst of barbarians ; 
and, although I ought to have known better, I regarded 
California for the moment as an exceptional State, for 
whose salvation a special effort must be made. Little 
did T imagine that the same lust of power was to strike 
down the chief magistrate in the Capital of the nation, 
before a year should end. Theodore Glancey, fighting 
for Garfield, but with a brave and determined purpose 
to secure purity in politics, died for the very cause that 
will have made a martyr of our true-hearted President, 
whether he lives or dies, — for Garfield's strong body must 
feel the consequences of the assassin's malice to his last 
hour, as that of our beloved Massachusetts Senator felt 
the weight of a coward's cane. Those who have read 
the preceding pages will have read to little purpose, if 
they do not understand to some extent the state of soci- 
ety I have tried to describe. 

I shall also have made small impression, if, under the 
weigh't of anxiety still felt throughout our country, my 
readers have no desire to know whether Clarence Gray 
was convicted. In the month of March, 1881, this crim- 



418 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

inal was acquitted in Santa Barbara by the disagreement 
of the jury. AVhile the panel was going on, Gray was 
allowed to challenge juror after juror, on the ground that 
he had been prejudiced against him by listening to the 
address delivered at Glancey's funeral. That address 
dropped Gray out of sight : it was a solemn impeach- 
ment of the State of California. Her daily papers bear 
steady witness to the fact that the reign of violence is" 
not ended. Assassinations have been common in Cali- 
fornia, as on all frontiers ; but they have not been com- 
mon in Santa Barbara, where the irresponsible part of 
the population is very small, and where there has existed 
for several years all the security of a New England 
country town. 

The people by their attorney, Charles T. Jones, of Sac- 
ramento, appealed from the decision of the first trial; 
and on the 23d of March Gray left Santa Barbara in 
charge of the sheriff, to be tried a second time, before 
Judge Head, at Eedwood City, San Mateo County. Mr. 
Jones's management of the case is said to have been 
masterly, and Gray was convicted of murder in the sec- 
ond degree, and sentenced to twenty years in tlie State 
Prison. 

Had the verdict been as to murder in the first de- 
gree, capital punishment would have been doubtful ; 
yet nothing less than this could make the needed im- 
pression on the lawless part of the community. Santa 
Barbara congratulates itself, however; for conviction 
is rare in such cases, and the Press took the strange 
ground that this brutal murder was not unj)rovoked! 
The San Mateo County " Journal " sets a good exam- 
ple to some Eastern papers, when it prints the follow- 
ing words : — 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 419 

" Theodore Glancey died not for himself, but for the people. 
He was killed in defence of their rights, not his own. To 
sustain the freedom of the American press is not the duty of 
one man, but the duty of all citizens. It is they that are in- 
terested in this principle far more than he. The truth that 
Theodore Glancey asserted by his death was worth more to 
the country than his life, even had he the will and force of a 
•hundred men. Great principles have ever made martyrs of 
men; and as the blood of the martyr is the seed of the new 
principle, so death alone brings it to full harvest." 

Let us rewrite this paragraph for a greater man, and 
with slightly different circumstances in view : — 

" President Garfield suffers not for himself, but for the 
people. He was attacked while defending constitutional 
rights, not personal issues. To sustain the dignity and 
purity of the chief magistracy is not the duty of one man, 
but of all citizens. It is the country that is interested in 
the issue far more than the President. The political honesty 
which he vindicates by every pang he suffers is worth far 
more to his country than his life. Great principles have 
ever made martyrs of men ; and as the blood of the martyr 
is the seed of the new principle, let us make sure that in this 
case his long agony brings it to full harvest." 

And what is this harvest? — for it is the^same for the 
obscure editor on the shore of the Pacific and the Pres- 
ident borne into office six months ago, by a popular ova- 
tion which thrilled the country from ocean to ocean. It 
is the triumph of civil-service reform. This will make 
the lives of public men safe, will diminish the pressure 
upon public officers, and will give us statesmen where 
we have had politicians. 

The " terrors of the law " have long since ceased to be 
" terrors." An unworthy governor may pardon Clarence 
Gray. If our beloved President recovers, Guiteau, who 



420 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

has a hundred times confessed that he meant to murder, 
will not meet a murderer's doom. 

To purify politics, by the establishment of civil ex- 
aminations, and to drain our national city so that the 
life of the meanest citizen, as well as that of the chief 
magistrate, shall be safe, have long been the first two 
duties of Congress. From this moment they are the 
evident duties. Let the two Houses see to it that they 
are speedily fulfilled. 

When Lincoln was assassinated, for the first time in 
the history of the world all nations held their breath 
and together listened at one moment for one sound, — 
to the bell which tolled out the mournful story of his 
death. Since the second of July, by reason of the same 
marvellous " girdle " with which human invention has 
invested the earth, the whole civilized world has waited 
at the bedside of one suffering man. 

Whatever this may have done for Europe, it has made 
the citizens of the United States one people in a new 
and special sense. It has developed their faith in the 
unseen and spiritual. It has made selfish men disin- 
terested, rude men courteous, arbitrary men humble, and 
rash men cautious. It would seem as if for the moment 
the selfish greed of the politician had received a death- 
blow. 

Lincoln, Mass., Sept. 20, 1881. — In my own mind, 
every page of this book is as inextricably linked to the 
memory of Garfield, as every hour passed in Santa Bar- 
bara was interwoven with that of Glancey. 

The bickering of the colleges, the intrigue of the mar- 
kets, and the want of equity in the courts do what they 
can to destroy our faith in human nature ; but no sooner 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 421 

does a great emergency arise than the true key-note of 
humanity is touched, and men rise to the level of our 
ideal. 

If out of the whole world I could have chosen a 
President for the United States, I would have chosen 
James A. Garfield. That a convention of delegates would 
nominate him never suggested itself to my wildest hope. 
Filled with fresh expectation because of that nomina- 
tion, I travelled westward. In California I encountered 
the perplexities which followed tlie publication of the 
forged letter to Morey, and which led to the defeat of 
Horace Davis, — one of the best Eepresentatives ever 
sent from the West coast to Washington. I lingered 
there amid rockets and torch-light processions, and 
came homeward through the joyous acclamations which 
greeted the rescued States. I dropped my pen, while 
Pennsylvania Avenue resounded to the tread of eight 
thousand troops, and echoed the psean of victory. 

My final glimpse of that glowing and heroic face was 
taken later just before I left Washington, when in his last 
public address our President set the advantages of a lib- 
eral education before the graduating class of the Deaf 
Mute College. It was the pencil of the proof-reader 
which dropped from my startled hand, when " the shot 
heard round the world " was fired on the second of July. 
On that morning the President, starting for Williams 
College, intended also to go on to Worcester as the guest 
of Senator Hoar, and while there to go with him to the 
Cemetery of the little town of Lincoln, from whence the 
father of Garfield had emigrated to Ohio. He was to 
stand for the first time on tlie grave of his ancestors. 

When I heard of this, I also determined to make that 
pilgrimage ; but the long anxieties of the watch which 



422 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

I shared with the whole nation drove the thought for a 
while from my mind. 

On the nineteenth of September, still hoping against 
hope, I came up hither to pass the night. Seated on 
the very summit of its county, nested amid green hills, 
with more than thirty spires dotting the horizon, the 
night spent in Lincoln was uninvaded by the " passing 
bell." Unsuspicious I went out to greet the dawn of 
this new day, and over the dewy grass to the gate of 
the Cemetery. 

Directly opposite to me as I entered, and between me 
and the massive monument consecrated to the descen- 
dants of "Hoare, Sheriff of Gloucester," I saw the 
name — 

ABRAM GEARFIELD. 

My tears rose, as well as the proud quick thought that 
in the hero's veins ran the blood of Massachusetts. 

At this moment a lady came out of a house at the bot- 
tom of the hill, far beyond ordinary ear-shot. She waved 
the morning paper from her outstretched hand, and evi- 
dently sought to attract our attention. We turned 
silently and faced her. On the still air of the morning, 
which no breath of bird or hum of insect stirred, came 
to us distinctly one word, — " Dead ! " 



NOTE. 

If any readers have followed this journal with interest, they will 
perhaps wish to ask a few questions to which this postscript is in- 
tended to furnish the reply. Everything was said to prevent me 
from going to California in summer, and to divert my purpose of 
going alone. I was warned continually of the great discomfort to 
be expected, and the constitutional disturbance to be feared from 
alkaline dust and water. I had no choice, for if I did not go in 
summer and go alone, I could not go at all ; but looking back 
with grateful pleasure, I am perfectly content with the result. 
In crossing the plains, we had rain nearly every night, and did 
not suffer from the dust at all. 

On my return I was congratulated by every one, because I 
seemed to have accomplished a great deal for the length of my 
stay. If I did so, it was because I went alone, and was not de- 
tained by the plans or ailments of others. That I kept the power 
to travel was largely due to the kindness of friends, who received 
me into their houses, and, by surrounding me with the best possi- 
ble conditions, kept me as strong as it was possible to be. But 
these friends were not strangers to whom I presented only a 
traveller's claim : the ties which united us had been knit long be- 
fore I ever thought to see the sun set over the Pacific. In the 
early life of California it was necessary that every family should 
receive the traveller, and he was welcome because he broke a 
silence which has ceased to exist. Now the throng of visitors 
throws every resident back on the instinct of self-preservation, 
and the traveller may go everywhere to a public house, which be 
can make comfortable if he does not find it so. 

I have dwelt with emphasis on the discourtesy of railway offi- 
cials and the discomforts of the much boasted railway travel 
because no one prepared me for them, and because the United 
States contributed so largely to the building of the overland rail- 
ways that travellers have a right to expect what they do not find. 



424 MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 

That the facts do not owe their existence to my imagination the 
reader will believe, if he consider that at the moment I am 
writing these lines the United States Government is sending a 
Commissioner to the west coast to look after its interests. It is 
rumored that the proprietors of the Southern overland route have 
built that road to defeat the ends of justice, and to deprive the 
Government of its lawful royalty on the freight transported by the 
Northern. I could not helj) seeing that the only persons whose 
comfort was considered by the railways were political powers, 
and that their eyes were persistently blinded. A woman without 
a vote, and not known as an influence in any other way, was not 
likely to be considered. 

I not only gained time by going alone, but I was constantly 
thrown into travelling parties which would have been inaccessible 
to two persons. The travellers in the summer season are chiefly 
English gentry, and of most of those I met I have made more 
than a mere acquaintance. • 

It was the earnest desire of my Western friends that I should 
stay through the winter. It was most fortunate that I did not, 
for it has been a winter of unparalleled disaster. The rains have 
been strenuous ; the lovely Mormon ranches of the Sacramento 
Valley have been flooded out of sight ; a pretty little watering 
place near Santa Cruz, and several mountain towns where I lin- 
gered have been washed off the face of the earth ; freight des- 
patched from New York in January had not reached Stockton in 
April, — and for all this I do not think the spring flowers would 
have compensated me. The rain which usually averages twelve 
inches has this season been a little more than twenty-five. Prop- 
erty, crops, and cattle have suffered. Nor is California prosperous 
according to the opinions of her residents. From the moment 
that I first saw what is called hydraulic mining, it seemed to me 
that the State would have to interfere to check its legitimate con- 
sequences. The^ overflow of the Sacramento, which has broken 
its levees, is the result of the shoaling of a river filled to the 
brim v/ith the ddbris of the hills. In the same way the harbor 
of San Francisco, perhaps the finest in the world, is fast filling up. 
The bonanza mines once brought in a revenue of two to three 
millions a month. Now the stocks are assessed about a million 
a month. This is depressing, and everybody talks of hard times. 

I think it very probable that some of my readers will be an- 



MY FIRST HOLIDAY. 425 

noyed at the persistency with which I have criticised the climate of 
San Francisco and of California generally. I do this for the same 
reason that I have spoken' of the discomforts of railroad travel, 
because I was not myself prepared for the fogs, or the daily alter- 
nations of temperature, or the fact that in California rheumatism 
and n'feuralgia are •' kept in stock," by anything I had ever read 
in books of travel. 

When I was in Utah I was told by all the authorities, and by 
the common people, that the Mormon church never made any 
attempt to proselyte within the United States, and that converts 
coming from any part of the United States always bore their own 
expenses. The papers of this week report that forty Mormon 
missionaries in Omaha are bound to the mines in Colorado, and 
as many more are mentioned as having gone to Chattanooga. I 
have seen both items repeated, with the information that the par- 
ties are bound for the mines in Wales and Cornwall ; and I hope 
that the latter is the truth. The paragraphs have set me wonder- 
ing whether proselyting to polygamy within the limits of the 
United States could be prevented if it were attempted. In 
Wales and Cornwall even Mormonism may find a mission. 

Washington, October, 1881. 



INDEX, 



Agassiz, Louis, 62, 314. 
Amberley, Lady, quoted, 143. 
Andersen, Dr.,"^ of Santa Cruz, 312, 

313, 316. 
Anderson, Dr. Garrett, 90. 

Bacon, H. D., a donor to California 
University, 360. 

Benner, Rev. Edward, of the Congre- 
gational Church and Academv, Salt 
Lake City, 89. 

Berkeley, the seat of California Uni- 
versity, a visit to, 134-137 ; a walk 
through the University grounds, 
136 ; a private reception at, 356-358 ; 
a visit to the Universitv itself, 360- 
363 ; to the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind 
Asvlum, 363, 364. 

Big Trees, the, 214-221. 

Bird, Isabella, 5, 79, 90, 270; her 
"Letters from Japan," quoted, 6, 
172, 175, 370. 

Booth, Hon. Newton, 311. 

Bunsen, Baron, 164. 

Butler, Hon. B. F., anecdotes of, 57. 

Calaveras Grove, a trip to, from 
Stockton, and return, 206-226. 

California, climate of, 4, 8, 9 ; charac- 
ter of the population of, 7 ; the tirst 
Constitution of, 332; the injustice 
of its laws to women, 349, 350. 

Carlyle, Thomas, quoted, 393. 

Car/, Mrs. Jennie C, late Assistant 
Superintendent of Schools of Cali- 
fornia, 242, 243. 

Carr, Professor, 242, 244. 

Chamberlain, Basil Hall, 167; a fel- 
low-passenger on the journey east, 
397. 

Chautauqua Society, the, work being 
done by it in California for both 
men and women, 313, 348, 349. 

Cheyenne Canon, a visit to, 55, 56. 

Chicago, a stop at, the good work of 



some American women, and other 
matters of interest, 16-38. 

Child, Lydia Maria, 9. 

Chinese, "^ the, in San Francisco, as 
launders, 128 ; various characteris- 
tics of, 138; in what respect contact 
with the Western world has done 
them great injury, 159 ; a visit to 
Chinatown, their joss-houses and 
their religion, 159-177; why it is 
impossible to get them to answer 
questions about their customs, 189 ; 
their markets, 191; uncleanliness 
of, 191, 192; as laborers, and the 
popular outcr}^ against, 344 ; a ref- 
utation of the statement that their 
joss-houses are Buddhist temples, 
370 ; a striking characteristic in their 
life here, 371 ; another visit to their 
quarter of the city, 371 et seq. ; de- 
scription of a play at "The Gold 
Cinnamon Garden" Theatre, 373- 
379; a Chinese funeral, 379; the 
Chinese question, 381 et seq. ; the 
women, 383, 385 ; in the capacity 
of servants, 383, 384; the emigra- 
tion companies, 384, 385. 

Clarke, Dr. E. H., his experience as 
a phvsician among the grisettes of 
Paris, 124. 

Cleveland, Miss, principal of the Rin- 
con school, San Francisco, 21, 118, 
129, 1.39, 143. 

Collingwood. Lord, 318. 

Colorado, the greed for Indian terri- 
tory in, 10. 

Colorado Springs, the trip from Lead- 
ville through Pueblo to, 44-53; a 
stop at, 53-66; the college there, 
64, 65. 

Cousin Minnie, a perfect housekeeper, 
393. 

Cox, Hon. S.S., 237. 

Crane, Walter, 359. 

Crawford, Oswald, 238. 



428 



INDEX. 



Crocker, Charles, 334. 

Custis, George Washington, 84. 

Dana, Richard H., 253. 

Davis, Horace, 384, 385, 421. 

Denver, the trip from Chicago to, 
with advice to those women con- 
templating making it alone, 18-25; 
a stop at, 25-27. 

Dickens, Charles. 36, 90. 

Dinner party, a bill of fare at, 57, 58. 

East, the journey from San Fran- 
cisco to the, 388 et seq. ; a "stop 
over" at Stockton, 391, 392; an 
incident of the run to Sacramento, 
•394; a jewel of a porter, 398; the 
Palisades, 399; the Fortv-Mile Des- 
ert, 399, 400; the American Fort 
Caiion, 401; a stop at Burlington, 
Iowa, 411-413; at Quincv, 111., 414, 
415. 

Echo Canon, 75. 

Evans, Walter, his terra-cotta collec- 
tion at New Rochelle, 153. 

Farntiam, Mrs., an incident of the 
unhappiness of her second mar- 
riage, 315, 316. 

Finnev, President, of Oberlin College, 
409." 

Foltz, Clara, a young lawyer of San 
Francisco, 292. 

Foote, Marv Hallock, the log cabin 
of, 40. 

Fuller, Margaret, 232, 289. 

Garden of the Gods, a visit to, 
62, 63. 

Garfield, James A., his election to 
the Presidency, 406 ; his testimony 
to the influence of Oberlin College 
in politics, 409 ; the assassination 
of, its significance, 417-420; his 
memorv associated with this book, 
420-422. 

Gaskell, Mrs., quoted, 88. 

Gaston, Dr. Emma, her busy and use- 
ful life as a physician in Chicago, 
16, 17. 

Giles, Herbert A,, his " Strange Sto- 
ries from a Chinese Studio, "quoted, 
170. 

Glancev, Theodore, 251, 284, 285; 
the assassination of, 254-256, 258 ; 
funeral of, 272, 273. 

Glen Eyrie, a visit to, 60, 61. 

Gompertz, Mr., instructor in Spanish 
in California University, conversa- 
tion with, 357, et seq. 



Goodwin, , the great Egyptolo- 
gist, 163. 

Gordon, Lady Duff, in Egypt, 79. 

Gray, Clarence, the murder of Theo- 
dore Glancey by, 254-256 ; his ac- 
quittal, and final conviction, 417, 
418. 

Grayson, , a donor to California 

University, 363. 

Green River, 73. 

Hagars, George, of Hagarstown, 

Maryland, 38. 
Harmon, Mr., of Oakland, a donor to 

California Universitv, 360. 
Harte, Bret, quoted, 158. 
Haves, Mrs. Rutherford B., 183, 185, 

188. 
Hilgard, Professor, of California Uni- 
versity, 136; his exhibition of 

cereals, 120. 
Hoar, Hon. Geo. F., 421. 
Hopkins, Mrs. Mark, residence of, 

129. 
Hutchinson, Asa, boarding house 

kept by, in Leadville, 86. 

Jackson, Mrs, ("H. H."), 69; her 
book on the Indians, 10-14; the 
home of. 56. 

Jones, Charles T., attorney for the 
people in the trial of Clarence Gray 
for the murder of Theodore Glan- 
cey, 418. 

Julien, Stanislas-Aignan,quoted, 170. 

Kane, Colonel, of Philadelphia, 
102. 

Kimball, Heber, one of the Mormon 
leaders, 98. 

King, Rev. Thomas Starr, 159, 180. 

Kingsborough, Lord, the nine vol- 
umes of, "examined in connection 
with the frescos of the Mission 
churches, 359. 

Kingsley, Charles, 401. 

Lacouperie, Terrien de, lectures 
of, quoted, 161-163. 

Lager, etymology of, 82. 

Lea, Anna, a picture by, 121. 

Leadville, the trip from Denver to, 
28-34; a stop at, 34-44. 

Legge, Dr., his lecHires and works on 
the Chinese religion, quoted, 162, 
et seq. 

Lick, James, a donor to California 
University, 360. 

Los Angeles, a visit to, from Stock- 
ton, 228,249; the "mission of San 



INDEX. 



429 



Gabriel " here, 230, 237, — also the 
great wine and brandy ranch of 
Stern & Rose, 237-240; the pop- 
ulation, climate, etc., of, 248, 249. 

Lowell, Dr. Charles, 5. 

Lytton, Sir Edward, 91. 

Marsh, Professor, of Yale College, 
73, 129, 354. 

Marvanlel, Miss Emma, kindergar- 
ten kept b}', in San Francisco, 186- 
188. 

Meik, Dr., a translator of the Mor- 
mon Bible, 104. 

Miller, Joaquin, quoted, 274. 

Mitchell, Dr. Arthur. 113 n. 

Monterey, a visit to, 317 et seq. ; its 
El Monte Hotel, an enterprise of 
the bonanza kings, 319, 320, 333- 
33G; the climate of, 330. 

Mormons, the, see Salt Lake City; 
proselytism by, 425. 

Morris, William, 359. 

Mott, Lucretia, 9. 

Mount Carmel, the Mission of, a visit 
to, 320 et seq. 

Oakland, reception given there to 
Mrs. Haves bv the Ebell Societv, 
183-186." 

Palmer, General, the home of, 61. 
Parker, Theodore, 166. • 
Peabody, Rev. F. W., 157, 159. 
Pedro, *Dom, Emperor of Brazil, 238, 

239. 
Peirce, Benjamin, death of, 9, 314. 
Pike's Peak, 25. 
Pourtales, Count, 9. 
Powell, Major, 74. 
Pratt, Orson, the church historian of 

the Mormons, 103. 
Prawlonfi, etymology of, 83. 
Profanity, the use of, 410. 

Railway Officials, the discourtesy 
of, wh}' it and the general discom- 
forts of railway travel have been 
emphasized, 423, 424. 

Ramirez, Sefior Don Jose Fernando, 
sale of the librarv of, 358. 

Ripley, George, 9, 338. 

Sacramento, the city of, 395. 396. 

Salt Lake Citv, the trip from Denver 
to, 69-79; a' stop at, 79-108; the un- 
healthy condition of, 81; its "Mount 
of Prophecv," 83; a view of Salt 
Lake, 84; temple Block, 84; other 
public buildings, 85; the Mormon 



graves, 86; the Mormon women, 
87; Barfoot's Museum, 88, 89; the 
Congregational Church and Acad- 
emy, 89, 90; the growing disincli- 
nation of the young girls to marry 
Mormons, 91 ; the Tithing House, 
94; the Tabernacle, 95; extract 
from a child's paper printed b}- the 
Mormons, 90; the New Temple, 
97; the Board of Emigration, 98- 
100; interview with the Secretary 
of the Board concerning the unsan- 
itary condition of the citv, 100, 
101; the "Amelia Palace,"" 101- 
103; various translations of the 
Mormon Bible, 103, 104; disinte- 
grating foi'ce of the Mormon body 
politic, 105, 100; consideration 
of the pro{)er governmental policy 
toward the Mormons, 106, 107. 
San Francisco, the trip from Salt 
Lake City to, 108-116; its "cable 
tramway," 117, 369; the commer- 
cial tone of, 118; lunches, and the 
ladies met at them, 118, 119; a 
visit to the Mechanics' Fair in the 
Mission Street Building, 120; a 
picture of, 121, 122; the decora- 
tions of a jeweller's shop, 122, 
123; Dupont Street, the abode of 
the "Strange women," 123-125; 
the bar-rooms, 126 ; the loan shops, 
127 ; viewed as a cit}- of roofs, 127, 
128; a meeting of the Woman's 
Social Science Association, 130, 
131 ; the view of the harbor of, 132; 
the hill of Tamalpais, and the is- 
land of Yerba Buena, 133 ; charac- 
ter of its Chinamen, 138; the fe- 
male school-teachers of, 142; a 
visit to the Rincon school, 142- 
144; to the Golden Gate Park, 
144-148; the markets of, 148, 149, 
190-192; a visit to Woodward's 
Gardens, 149-152; the San Do- 
lores Mission, 157, 158; a visit 
to Chinatown, 159, et seq.; a pub- 
lic meeting of the Academy of 
Sciences, 178; a reception given to 
the Author, 186; the Olympic Club, 
187; a call upon the Chinese con- 
sul, 188; a dinner at the Italian res- 
taurant, 192-195; absence of re- 
finement observed, 195; the trip 
by sea from Santa Barbara to, 
276-278; a visit to the Carnival, 
278-280; a visit to Menlo Park, 
280-284; last Sunday in, an invita- 
tion to dinner, 367", 368; a visit 
to the Stock exchange, 385, 386. 



430 



INDEX. 



San Jose, a visit to Mrs. M., 337- 
356; a visit to some of the gar- 
dens of, 342, 345 ; a service by the 
Author in the Unitarian Church, 
347, 348; a drive to "Alum Kock " 
Caiion, 351; the yellow scale 
scourge, 352 ; the rare bargains 
in Japanese articles found in, 
353 ; a visit to the Santa Clara Mis- 
sion Church, and the grounds of 
General Neigla, 354-356. 

Santa Barbara, a visit to, 249-276; a 
service by the Author in the Unita 
rian Chapel, 257; drive to Monteci- 
to. the old Franciscan Mission, 258- 
267, 271, 272; a visit to Colonel 
HoUister's ranch, 264-270 ; the 
climate and scenery of, 275. 

Santa Clara, 340, 34f. 

Santa Cruz, a visit to Mrs. K., for- 
merly Georgiana B. of Brook Farm, 
285-317; something of the early 
history of, 289-292; a visit to Miss 
Laura Hecox, 298-312 ; a visit to a 
vineyard in the Zevante valley, 
299-307 ; a visit to the Jesuit Mis- 
sion, 309-311. 

San Rafael, a visit to, 139-141. 

Sayer, Professor, quoted, 164. 

Severance, Mr. and Mrs., a visit to 
their home at "Red Roof," 244- 
248. 

Schorb, De Barth, residence of, 241. 

Shaw, Judge, anecdote of, 57. 

Shurtleff, Dr. George A., Superin- 
tendent of the Insane Asvlum 
at Stockton, 201. 

South Park Railroad, Platte Canon, 
28 et seq. 

Stanford, Governor, of California, res- 
idence of, 129; sentiments express- 
ed bv, at his golden wedding, 334, 
335/ 

Stearns, Professor, Secretary of Cali- 
fornia University, 135. 

Stebbins, Rev. Horatio, 131, 189, 388. 

Stevens, Harriet, 131. 

Stockton, a visit to, 197 et seq. ; 
the Insane Asylum, 201-203; 



the sloughs ( or slews ) of, 226, 
227; from San Francisco to, 388- 
392. 

Stow, Mrs., her book on the Probate 
Laws of California, 349. 

Stowell, Miss, of the Rincon school, 
San Francisco, 143. 

Stuart, Alice, her watei'-color por- 
traits of Colorado flowers, 64. 

Sweet, Paul, a grizzly-bear story, 303. 

Temperance, some thoughts on, 

295, 296. 
Tennev, Rev. E. P., President of 

Colorado College, 51, 65, 180. 
Thibet, the polyandrous tribes of, 88. 
Ticknor, Amia, 314. 
Tiele, Professor, 165. 
Toland, Mr., a donor to California 

University, 360. 
Tourgee, Judge, 407. 
Twin Lakes, a visit to, 39-41. 

Unitarians, the excellent field for 
missionarv work furnished them by 
the far West, 179-182. 

Walker Brothers, the, of Salt 

Lake Citv, 81. 
Walker, James P., 263. 
Warren, Miss, of Colorado Springs, 

a public benefactor, 59. 
Wells, Councillor D. H., of Salt Lake 

Citv, and his familv, 87. 
Wells, Mrs. Emmefine B., of Salt 

Lake City, 87. 
Williams, Mrs., daughter of James 

the Novelist, an analysis of " Ro- 
meo and Juliet " by, 142. 
Williams, Virgil, Superintendent of 

the Art school in San Francisco, 

182. 
Woodward, R. B., the gardens given 

by him to San Francisco, 149. 
Wynkoop, Theodore, 356. 

Young, Brigham, 83, 85, 86, 97, 104, 
182; character of 92-94; the per- 
sonal diary of, 104. 



H 15 89 



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